Getting ready for Christmas

In spite of at least one Christmas party offer, Russell and I decided to play it low-key for Christmas this year. We are hanging around the apartment with a pile of snacks browsing the Internet and attempting to play D&D with only two people. I'm a monk.

We have a neat little stack of Christmas presents - thank mostly to my mom. We are also taking breaks here and there to clean the apartment. By real Christmas we may even have the house sparkling.

As I'm sure I've posted before, Christmas is not really a holiday in Japan. The commercialized version of the holiday does make an appearance. There are Christmas trees decorating lobbys all over the city and shopping malls are decorated with poinsettias and snowflakes. "All I want for Christmas is You" is playing at most venues also.

But how do people in Japan celebrate Christmas?

I suspect I already shared the story, but I'm dusting it off because I like it so much. When asked the above question, my co-worker got a confused look on his face and said,

"What do you mean? We celebrate it like everyone else. We give presents and eat Christmas Cake."

The presents is usually only true if children are involved, but the traditional Christmas Cake does seem to be a central tradition of the holiday for most Japanese people. The traditional Christmas cake is a sponge cake with whipped cream frosting and strawberries on top. Not at all unlike Japanese birthday cakes. Apparently the tradition was first introduced by, as you might expect, a cake shop wishing to drum up business. The Christmas Cake took off and I haven't met anyone in Japan yet who realizes this is Japan's unique contribution to the holiday. For a month in advance you can pre-order your very own Christmas Cake from grocery stores, convenience stores and cake shops around the country. Its big business.

And as long as we're introducing our own traditions, we really must tip our hat to Kentucky Fried Chicken. KFC has capitalized on the vague notion of a Turkey at Christmas to offer special Christmas buckets which include roast chicken legs, a salad with marshmallows on top and, you guessed it, a Christmas cake. Theirs is chocolate this year, though. A bucket for two will run you about $50. If you want a whole roast chicken, you're looking at $75. They usually sell out, so people order in advance. Other department stores, grocery stores and convenience shops sell roast chicken at more reasonable prices, but KFC appears to be the gold standard.

We play with the idea of a KFC Christmas every year, but we just cant pay that kind of money for something we know is going to upset our stomaches.

Instead, this year we bought a fried chicken platter from the grocery store for $10 that did an equally good number on the tummies. Salad for the rest of the week for me!

Update: If you're interested in the contents of the tray pictured above, pop a couple of Tums and keep reading. There were: chicken nuggets, french fries, crab croquettes, fried shrimp in a chili sauce, tempura shrimp, garlic roast chicken, sausages, karaage chicken and an egg surrounded in some sort of fish cake, boiled and cut into quarters. I'll be honest. It was not a good idea.