{"id":541807,"date":"2022-12-18T18:56:28","date_gmt":"2022-12-18T09:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visitmatsumoto.com\/?p=541807"},"modified":"2022-12-18T18:56:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T09:56:28","slug":"its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-the-japanese-version-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.visitmatsumoto.com\/en\/uncategorized\/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-the-japanese-version-of-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like (the Japanese Version of) Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"\n

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Back in 2007, when my Japanese was even worse than it is now, I managed to land a gig on a team of translators\/interpreters for the ESPN crew that had come to Tokyo for the World Figure Skating Championships. For a week we kept the fridge in the staff room stocked with Coke, taped wires and cables to the floor, and, once in a while, facilitated a conversation between an American cameraman and a Japanese electrician (repeating the words the cameraman said for the electrician in Japanized pronunciation: keh-booru <\/strong><\/em>for cable, puh-ra-ee-ood<\/em> for plywood, etc).<\/p>\n

One day for lunch we ordered Dominos Pizza for the crew. As soon as they walked in after the morning session the sarcasm started flying. “Wow! Dominos! I love Japanese food! I came all the way here for this?” <\/em>Then they saw their pizzas were topped with mayonnaise and corn and tuna and shrimp. “What is this? Where’s the pepperoni?”<\/em><\/p>\n

For all the sarcasm I was (silently) answering them with, years later I’d realize that my reaction to Christmas in Japan has been a lot like their pizza protestations. “Why are they celebrating Christmas anyway? Does anyone even understand the songs they’re listening to?” <\/em>This followed by “Why can’t they decorate their trees in red and green and silver like normal?”<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the past few years it seems they’ve begun to fall in line with the Western version of Christmas I grew up with.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

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To be honest, I’m kind of disappointed.<\/p>\n

Riding around town, along Ise-machi Street and the individually, uniquely-decorated trees and the random Christmas adornments in shops and store windows, I find that I appreciate the local twist to the old Western traditions.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

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I mean, so what if the kids are posing with a bear instead of with a fat guy with a white beard and a silly red get-up? Or if the lights at night are mostly blue?<\/p>\n\"\"\n

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Mixed with the more traditional manifestations – i.e. what I grew up with – the Christmas that is appearing here in Matsumoto and, I suspect, across the rest of Japan, is exactly that. Christmas in Japan.<\/p>\n

Shortly before I first moved to Japan one of my friends remarked, upon hearing my plans, “But Japan is so different!”<\/p>\n

Yup. That’s pretty much the idea.<\/em><\/p>\n

So even though the holidays don’t quite play out like they did in my previous life – and I do miss that huge family Christmas dinner by the massive Christmas tree – I look around at this Japanese version of Christmas and I think ‘Yeah, Japan is different.’<\/em><\/p>\n

And I’m good with that.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

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\u30e1\u30ea\u30fc\u30af\u30ea\u30b9\u30de\u30b9\uff01<\/strong><\/p>\n

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