Christmas in Japan!
Christmas in Japan was BUSY!
It started when Lisa (my co-worker) threw a British Christmas Party complete with "Christmas Crackers!", then there were three AEON parties (one adult party and two for the kiddies!), we also decided to have our own Christmas Eve dinner for which Brian made another scrumptious feast, we waited in a crowd of thousands for almost two hours to see the Millenario (a disappointing light show), and it ended when we had a Nabe post-Christmas feast at Kaori's!
It was very different from Christmas back home, but memorable too. Christmas is a relatively new import to Japan, with no religious grounding it is 100% commercialized, the only thing known about Christmas is Santa Claus (not a nativity scene to be seen!) and very little is even known about him. It is also strange to be in a place where Christmas is the only holiday celebrated this time of year - no Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Ramadan. For Japan, New Year is actually the big religious family holiday, when most people return to their hometown and visit temples and shrines.
We hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season (whichever holiday you celebrated) and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Posted by deanne at December 28, 2003 08:22 PM