Christmas in Japan
I used to wonder why there was a huge exodus of foreigners every festive season but it only took one Christmas and New Year here to realize why. We all think of Christmas as a time for family gatherings and catching up with friends; itfs a special time of year. But December 25th is just another random date on the calendar in Japan.
Today is Christmas Day (2003). 
The postman came today, construction workers woke me up this morning sanding away on my stairwell from 9:00am, I ate lunch out in a half full restaurant and I even went to the bank. So I hope that gives you some idea of how enormalf a day it is.
Christmas has been increasing in significance every year but it does not have the same importance as we give to it. It is very commercialized. But hey, the department store windows look fantastic! Many homes have a tree, presents are given to children and between couples (usually on Christmas Eve), apart from that most families think of Christmas as a time to eat a cream sponge cake with Santa sitting on top of it.
I remember one year I took a walk in the morning on Christmas Day and I saw a staff member from KFC taking down all the decorations from the shop windows. I felt like yelling gnot yet, itfs still Christmash but that just goes to show that here Christmas is celebrated mostly on the 24th in the evening. I guess itfs because the 25th, as stated earlier, is not a public holiday so people have to go to work.
By the way the kids had school right up until the 24th December.
Ifll talk about the New Year celebrations soon.
