Christmas in Japan

Christmas in Japan is very different from Christmas in America.  It is celebrated closer to the way Americans celebrate Valentine's Day.  Christmas here is about gift-giving and Santa Claus.  Shops decorate for Christmas with presents and Santa displays.  Some people in America may say, "Christmas is all about gifts here, too," but not in the same way it is in Japan.  In America, many people go to church on Christmas Eve, there are nativity scenes on display, and many people are at least familiar with the nativity story.  Not so in Japan.  It is ONLY about gifts (in the same way that very few people in America think about the history of Valentine's Day, but just give gifts to loved ones).

Presents are literally under our "Charlie Brown" Christmas Tree thanks to our family.  We didn't have stockings so we improvised with Santa hats!

Moreover, Christmas is not a national holiday.  Stores are open, students go to school for "club" (aka school teams and groups like orchestra), people work -- including Friends Club Teachers.  So while I had the day off (since Immersion finishes earlier in the week and gets to have Christmas off), Kris had to work all day at the Friends Club Christmas parties.  I decided to go to Starbucks and pick up coffee and hot chocolate for Kris and some of our friends and deliver it to them between parties.  It was so weird to me to see people out and about on Christmas -- just as if it were any other day.

One regular Friends Club teacher, Zach, dressed as Frosty for the beginning of the Christmas parties.  Is it just me or is this a really creepy-looking Frosty the Snowman costume?

My friend Danielle and her adorable daughter also brought Starbucks to her husband who was working at the Christmas parties on Christmas Day.

Another difference is that Christmas is not a day for eating a large home-cooked meal with extended family (instead, the people in Japan do this on New Years Day). As a result of a brilliant marketing campaign that dubbed KFC fried chicken as the "traditional Christmas meal" when the franchise first came to Japan, families will pre-order fried chicken meals to eat on Christmas Day.  I wonder if Japanese tourists who visit America on Christmas Day are bewildered as to why KFC is closed. Also families usually eat cake, which is typically a spongecake with vanilla frosting and topped with strawberries.  By the way, cakes here in Japan are really expensive. We're talking $35 for a small cake!

My students with their Christmas cakes, which we served at the Immersion Christmas Party on December 23.

Just in case you don't believe me about the whole KFC thing, read the article on ABC News [photo taken from the same article and website].

In a way it was good to have a Christmas that wasn't "normal" since this was the first year without my dad.  It was easier to cope with missing him when his absence at traditional Christmas activities wasn't smacking me in the face. I did spend some time sipping a glass of Riesling (which he introduced me to; and since I don't smoke cigars like him ) by the tree, thinking of him and writing some Christmas memories of him.  It was a hard holiday season and the ache of missing him has not yet subsided.  Especially because the last time I saw my dad alive was before I went back to Japan after Christmas and New Years last year. 

Sitting by the tree, sipping wine (since I don't smoke cigars like him) and writing Christmas memories of my father.

When Kris got home from work we ordered pizza from Pizza Hut and opened our gifts.  Then we Skyped with my mom and sister and opened presents together with them. It was probably the only part of the whole day that actually felt like Christmas.  But really, a low-key-let's-pretend-it's-not-Christmas-because-I'm-not-at-all-merry- Christmas was what I needed.