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:

BAD BACKBLOGGING 2012

But it's my blog so I can do whatever I want so MEH.
Okay so Christmas came and went. So did year 2011 end and 2012 start. Bye bunny, Hello Dragon etc ohyeah.
Also my mom and sisters came, were here two wonderful weeks and then left. Same with my friend who came a bit over a week ago and left today. As a souvenir she probably gave me a flu, I dunno. It's not cool to be sick now that this exchange is starting to end and I got to finish all the school work that been delayed/procrastined by myself/holidays/etc.

Just to start this few weeks of furious updates, telling about trips, living here, other things... Let me tell you about manga cafes. To me, they are those fancy little things that exist  between all the flashy neon signs there are smaller ones that usually have a picture of a frog, Kaeru, or a golden fish, Manboo. You usually pay by the hour (8 hours is somewhere around 1400 yen), and you get a booth that has a big, comfy chair/cushioned floor, tv and a computer. They also have showers, toilet and a drink bar. Some places also have Playstation 2. The point of these cafes is of course manga (I've read only one manga when I've been in Manboo), just endless and EEEEEEEEENDLESS shelves of manga. Usually you can always find the most basic manga from every manga cafe and loads more. There's a lot of funny ones that you browse through and laugh at when you wait to get into the toilet. Isn't that nice?

Manga cafe from above and inside the box

Loads of manga... sideways

And the box. This is meant for one or two.

The staff in these places lacks the knowledge of English but they are helpful to exhausted customers who usually come at around 1-3am to play games, roam the internet, read, watch tv or sleep. The last activity mentioned is the most popular one, I can assure that. You will have this horrible, tired feeling inside you, your body aches and your clothes smell like tobacco but HEY! You at least wake up inside, near toilets and the internet and you had the possibility to drink liquids that are non-alcoholic beverages all the time you were in there. Why I'm talking about manga cafes now when I should be talking about holiday stuff?
It's because I spent one night during Christmas/New Year's in those. Why? To do all these beautiful and fancy things guidebooks tell you about, you need one thing and one thing only: money and I did not possess this beautiful thing nor I saw need for it.
This Christmas/New Year’s would’ve been very different (but maybe less fun?). I would’ve just stay in funky hotel and had boring breakfast there, went only to tourist spots 24/7, eaten all the best foods around Tokyo without finding the best place…. you know, those materialistic things we’ve been so awfully accustomed to, just conditioned to be like that...

Next time it's going to be more about this funky Christmas C:

'Til next time!

THINGS THAT CAN COST STRAWBERRIES

That idiom didn't work.
But things that can cost stupid money if you're sick/lazy to go anywhere else.

• Tea (black/berry tea)
• Proper soup
• 100% Orange juice
• Pasta
• Ham
• Bread

Things that you miss when you're sick. Those are all too expensive for you to buy just like that. I promise you. Especially when you're dumbsick.

YAY, TUMBLRMLLDMLS

Updating sound and pics I like hereeee

RANDOM STUFF HERE

Random post ahead. This is what you would've been reading the whole autumn if I wasn't lazy .

Stuff.

I am the master when it comes to using this word. Stuff. Stuff is always happening in my life. Stuff and things that I can’t explain and to tell you the truth; not even that interested. Things and stuff just happen and it’s funny.

I observe random stuff. I amuse myself with these random happenings and feel extrahappy about them… Random stuff I like to call it. Especially things that happen while I’m on the train, walking around or just cycling somewhere. Or when I’m at a store , again seeing things I have no idea what they are/thinking this only happens in movies and animu.

Things I notice interest me.  Things I don’t usually just… are there. Or I am funnily confused about something. Especially when it comes to food.

The amount of different snacks (salty=shoppai/karai or sweet=amai), drinks are just mindblowing. And all the chocolates, ice creams... Sheesh, maybe I gotta make a post about them too.

In our school shop, they have this weird drink as strawberry, tutti frutti and banana flavours. I don't know what it is and I don't care to find out.

Does it make me observative or just quirky when I see these things and I go all C:: ? Or shallow... I don't know. That's the thing. There's a lot of stuff. Most of it horribly and cutely useless. Here I've seen those plastic cases that are made for bananas. You know... because black, bruised bananas are bad (writing that made me horribly racist, I know). Also a plastic case made PURELY to protect your eggs. That you buy from the grocery store.

Because it's so hard to resist that urge to put them on the bottom of your shopping bag.

 Purely first world problems... Or not even those to my opinion, just silly consumerism.

Yes. CONSUMERISM. I'M SMRT.

In Japan there's a lot of stuff (see, stuff!!!) that... just should not be. To my opinion. Yeahyeah, I'm a designer and I should come up with stuff that people would buy/get somehow to... Esh. I'll probably become part of this horrible -"ism" at some point and I just have to accept it.

You see, this short post was about stuff again... Wait for more later.

LATERS<3 C:

CLOUUUUDDSSSSS (and other terribly meaningless pictures)

So I like taking pictures. I've just never own a very good camera. Because I like to take my pictures quick and just there.... And I take pictures from silly things. Very silly things. Like this post shows. You'll get more of these, I assure you.

Clouds in Kunitachi

More clouds in Kunitachi

View from my balcony/window thingy

Weather and nature in November *mindblown*

There were even flowers in Novermber!

Shaky pictures from university campus brought to you by Samsung

These were pretty

Teenager mirrorpic from 22th floor

I call these rooftop passages skyhighways in my head... These are in uni btw

SKKYYYYY

MORE SKYYY

EVEN MORE SKY

Good chocolate ice cream, bad coffee

Starbucks coffee is okay but expensive

THE CUTEST, MOST UNCONVENIENT BAG EVER

Yes, that is just a jar of pepper. Sideways.

My PE classes werent this cool in elementary school...

THE BEST OR THE BEST PIZZA BOX IN THE WORLD???

Photoset  1/??

Next time I'll write about my trip to Fuji-san that I had in October. Maybe I'll write it in two parts...
Laters<3 C:

WHAT I FEEL ABOUT PEOPLE

知り合い

The word I’ve used a lot of here. Or at least I’ve wanted to. I might seem very outgoing person to some people then just the vice versa few moments after. It’s human nature.
Well, you might get a lot of acquaintances here but the fact is that they are not your friends. Just acquaintances that you see in school or when you’re having a good day but otherwise… You hang out with friends after school, not with people who you can only talk about the weather etc… It’s not really fun. Like that. So at this point, after been here little over one month, I only have one person I can call my friend. And I knew her beforehand. And I can call her my friend because we like same things that we can talk about. And we’re both quite silly.
For some reason everyone wants to seem normal.
Or it’s probably because I want to seem special that people want to remember me. In a good and bad way, I can’t really tell as people tend to value different things about people. Like to some a person who knows some things and analyzes almost everything may seem smart to another but someone finds that person just a smartass who talks empty words.


tl;dr

Wrote that part in October, you can read it, now really just… Well yeah. Life’s been more… stable if you can use that word? OKAY, I WILL USE IT NOW. Japan is funny like that, makes you rethink your values. Or just living somewhere where customs and everything are just so upside and topsyturvy compared to the old days.

I've never been much of a people person, never understood them (who does?) but I do like 98% of the people/acquintances/friends/enemies/annoying nutballs around me and whom I am friends with.

Here I've met a lot of people from all age ranges and social statuses and so forth etc. Especially Japanese... they are terribly polite. Both in good and bad. In a store, in the street.

The lack of word 'please' in Finnish language leaves me the habit of not saying it or nt just... showing through words my politeness. I talked about this with my teacher and she was just astonished. How such an important could NOT exist? Nope, it just doesnt.

I find it funny.

I find a lot of things Japanese do funny. But about that later. I just wanted to get this post done.

It really doesnt explain anything but me being derpy...
And really, I dont analyze some things that well that I could write about it very clearly. You can have the short version here:

• I dont think about matters that concern people
• Japanese have proven themselves to be the most hilarious nation in the world (about that in all the posts)
• I like food (yes)

LATERS<3 C: