Things about Christmas in Japan

Ranting.

I believe this is the easiest way for me to create content to blogs, talk about something and then jump into a whole new matter. It's just like Christmas nowadays... Hopefully though this post will be only about Christmas and what I did/experienced/saw. And what I did was that Christmas is all about for me; I was with my family, derping on the internet and eating.

It was a productive (and camerafree because my camera sucks!) Christmas Eve/Day in Tokyo, Ikebukuro. Or the beginning of it at least, this whole week-long holiday season when all of Japan is buzzing and moving and celebrating Christmas and most importantly, New Year’s that I will talk more later.
Christmas is almost nothing like it is back in Europe, especially in Finland where Christmas is celebrated actually on the Eve more than the actual Christmas Day. Two things are still in common: Christmas swag/chocolates come to stores in October and there is a lot of shopping and worrying about unnecessary things. When I went to my friend's place in November I thought I went forward in time... The station and the mall in front of it looked like it was already something like the 20th of December.

Holiday-wise Christmas isn't really that special. It's not a national holiday so most of the things just continue rolling as they were before. Back in Finland, everything closes and the land is quiet... Quite the opposite compared to Japan.

When walking down the streets and slowly progressing towards Tokyo, one thing was easy to notice: the amount of couples. Besides Valentine’s Day, Christmas Eve is one of the busiest days when it comes to dating and doing all those things that couples do: playing games, going out to the movies, eating at a restaurant, walking together and holding hands and doing all the things couples do when showing that we’retogetherandhappyandoh,thisdayisperfect.

The food. During Christmas is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR ME. I mean it, Christmas is all about that, eating well done and very good food. In Japan though there's two different (very different!) foods that are associated with Christmas in Japan. The first one is cake. Strawberry cake with cream to be specific.
And boy, they sell them everywhere. All the time. They start this fair in the beginning of Christmas and you can also order one and get it on a specific day. Like I did. I wanted to be part of this weird tradition and got one that I ate with my mom and sisters on the 23th of December.

I FOUND THE PIC OF THE CAKE WE ACTUALLY ATE

It was just a normal sponge cake with whipped cream (and something that were supposed to be fruits) and chocoalte on top. So good yet so sweet. I really don't understand the stereotype of Japanese food being salty after being here. Most of the foods I've consumed here are somewhat on the sweet side... Or at least how I taste them.
Now the Christmas cake aside, the second "cuisine" is chicken. And it's notorious here. Why? It's only chicken right...Right?
And not just any chicken. Ohno. It’s fried chicken… And not just any fried chicken:

IT IS I, COLONEL SANDERS.

Yes, KFC. The worst chicken in the whole wide world. The whole issue with KFC and Christmas in Japan never stops to amaze me. I've never personally eaten KFC (not that I want to eat that horrible, overpriced chicken-like substance) but according to 99% of the people I've asked; the food there is just horrible. Even worse than McDonalds and that's bad.

I guess that the whole thing "let's eat chicken" comes from the US (ohno,didnttotallyguessthat) with their Christmas turkey. In Japan, there are only turkeys in Hokkaido, the northernmost island... maybe. (this information puzzles me and is not confirmed). Long story short; turkey is too expensive/hard to get so chicken is your best bet. But why KFC? How it managed to market itself as the best juletime chicken in the whole wide... Japan? This stupid party bucket they have during Christmas is 1823792108319230 yen… Well actually it was somewhere around 2100 yen but still. Ridiculous price for something that’s considered low quality and unhealthy chicken. I don't get it, I don't want and I I most surely don't understand quite clearly this thing KFC has going on. They probably had a marketing GOD on their side to make this happen.

One thing I noticed, as I was alone, was being alone/single during Christmas is very dull here. Right now I’m in a dormitory and I’m being extremely quiet right now. I seem to be sharing a room with 5 other guys, hilarious. Everyone has these neat little Ipads and Macs and little laptops and I’m chilling on my big, bulky one. Why backpackers aren’t like they used to be… Looking at big maps, reading guidebooks, writing a diary etc. So boring :I

But still, Christmas feeling was there and I was happy. I didn't get any actual presents (wrapped in colourful paper), hear the traditional Christmas songs nor didn't watch TV 3 days in a row... But guess what, sometimes you some time off from things to even try to understand what I have in my life and how incredibly well my things are... Like they sing in that one song: If you know what you got then you ain't got much.

Next time it's more about the holiday season, picture posts and... ohyes, FOOD. Followed by heavy stuff we should all think about.

Until next time C: