Welcome to Japan - 1991.
A chill permeates the air. Trees have traded their green togs for more flamboyant ones. Nighttime descends rapidly upon the unsuspecting participants. Peace on Earth and goodwill to everyone, as shops have their annual Christmas sales.
Hey! Waitaminute! This is Japan!
Christmas sales? Ninety per cent of the population is Buddhist. What is going on here?!
As I'm sure everyone knows (this is sarcasm), 26 true-believers of the word of Christianity were murdered in Nagasaki over 300 years ago. And even until maybe 15 years ago, it wasn't a good idea to admit you preferred god over kamisama (Japanese word for god).
So what has happened? Why are the stores celebrating THE Christian enkai (party) of Christmas? Are there a lot of Christians now living in Japan? Nope - 99.7 per cent of all Japanese are Buddhist. Could it be for the small foreign contingent living here posing as English teachers? There's only about 1500 of us on the JET Programme.
Or, could this all just be a sham, as the Japanese retailers have found yet another way to sucker the populace who are are well-known to have a love-affair with American culture?
Jumping on the theme of Japan's Western fidelity, merchants have been able to sell every western-style culture to the hungry masses. American baseball caps, Budweiser, Valentine's Day (which the Japanese have corrupted to be the day women give presents to men first, and then on March 14 - White Day - men give presents to women... it's so they don't waste their time giving presents to a woman who might rebuff them), Boss Day (although not popular back home, it is a billion-yen business propelled by the butt-kissing workers in Japan), Halloween and now Christmas.
Japanese families are now putting up Christmas trees, decorating them with stars and angels and placing presents underneath. When I asked why, no one had a proper answer, except that everyone else was doing it. Ah, so desu ne (oh yeah). Keeping up with the Suzuki's. The true meaning of Christmas is more sales and inventory clearance.
Fortunately, they haven't gone all the way yet. With the exception of a KFC (Colonel Sander's old place) advertisement, Christmas has not yet come to television. Rudolph, the Grinch and Frosty have not yet made a miraculous appearance.
Hurry people, hurry. There are only 35 more shopping days until that event two days after the Emperor's birthday. Read about the BIRTHDAY presented here.
While I am not one to begrudge anyone wishing to celebrate Christmas, I am sorely disappointed that few Japanese seem to know or care about the tradition they are making a mockery of.
Although... come to think of it... the West seems to make quite a mockery of the sacred tradition of Christmas, too. Oh well, I guess the Japanese are just copying the West, after all.
Somewhere wondering how I'm supposed to afford 23 Christmas presents for my office. Owe-owe-owe,
Andrew Joseph
PS: Today's title is by the one and only Jerry Lee Lewis. It's HOT! This is from the Dennis Quaid movie, of the same name as today's blog - It's HOTTER!
PPS: Why this title? Think about the lead-in phrase to Great Balls of Fire.
