A Very Japanese Holiday Season

Happy New Year!  I’ve just spent my first Christmas and New Year in Japan.  In fact, it is my first Christmas and New Year outside of Australia.  I was wondering what to expect.  Now that it’s over and we’re rocketing into 2012, I can tell you all about it.

Christmas 

I think we’re all familiar with the standard Western Christmas.  Putting aside differences in climate between the Hemispheres, Christmas is a public holiday day spent with your family exchanging presents and eating turkey, pudding etc.  You know the drill.  Christmas in Japan is a decidedly different affair.  I think the following six points illustrate this.

First and foremost, Christmas is not a public holiday in Japan.  Yes, you read correctly.  If Christmas doesn’t fall on a Sunday or Saturday, you’ll be spending the day at work.  That said, 23 December is a public holiday for the Emperor’s Birthday (which is like Christmas for the few nationalistic loonies in Japan!) so you can’t feel that deprived of holidays.

Secondly, in Japan you are not expected to spend Christmas Day with your family.  If anything, Christmas is a “date night” for doting young couples.  It’s almost like a second Valentine’s Day.

Thirdly, buying a present for your family and friends is not expected.  Retailers must hate it!  However, if you’re a devoted young man on “date night”, your fair lady may be expecting a gift!

Fourthly, Japan is not a Christian country.  I don’t think that distinguishes Japan greatly from Australia since the average Australian does not seem like a particularly devote Christian (or a Christian at all) despite what they may write in the census.  I think Christmas is the only day that many Australians attend church as if it makes up for the complete year of Sundays they have otherwise missed.  In Japan, you can skip church along with the rest of the population.  And rest assured, there will be no nativity play at your local elementary school.

Fifthly, there is little in the way of Christmas decorations, carols and other fa, la, la, la, la, ho, ho, ho, ho, deck the halls stuff in Japan.  You’ll see the odd Christmas tree in a department store but not much more.  However, the one thing Tokyo does have is “illumination,” which are outdoor lighting displays.  These are many of these around Tokyo but they are not in Christmas colours and would be just as appropriate at any other time of year.  Some are quite impressive, such as the one at Tokyo Midtown.

Tokyo Illumination:  All lit up like a Christmas Tree?  No, just all lit up.

Finally, no-one seems to care that much for the “Christmas spirit,” which is so heavily promoted in Australia.  In Japan, you are not asked to “dig deep at Christmas time” to help various charities nor are you under any obligation to be nicer to anyone than you are for the other 364 days of the year.  That said, everyone is already pretty nice here, so there’s really no need to ramp it up just for Christmas.

New Year

I think we’re all equally familiar with the traditional Western New Year:  stay out all night drinking too many over-priced drinks then spend the next day hungover, un-tagging yourself in embarrassing Facebook photos thinking “there must be better ways to spend the first day of the year.”  In Japan, this is not the custom, except perhaps with some of the younger generation who have adopted such revelry.

Traditionally, Japanese New Year’s Eve is a quiet time spent with family.  People may visit a Shinto Shrine at midnight to say a prayer for the coming year.  Before midnight, they may eat toshikoshi soba at home with their family.  This is a special type of noodle eaten just before midnight on New Year’s Eve.  

 

On New Year’s Day, itself, they will eat Osechi which is the traditional food of New Year’s Day.  Osechi actually comprises several different types of food all of which are very organic and healthy.  It is served in a three-layered box where each level looks somewhat like a bento box.  Like many Japanese foods, Osechi is meticulously arranged and presented.  Each item of food symbolizes a particular virtue that you are hoping for in the New Year.  Unfortunately, I don’t know anything more about the meaning or history of Osechi, but I can tell you that it’s very nice and one of the best Japanese dishes I’ve had.

Zōjō-ji post balloon release.

So did I partake in the traditional Japanese New Year?  To an extent, yes.  Although I didn’t eat any toshikoshi soba, I visited Zōjō-ji at midnight which is the most popular shrine in Tokyo for seeing in the New Year (very crowded!).  At midnight, people release helium balloons carrying a piece of paper containing a wish for the New Year.  Hundreds were released at Zōjō-ji.  On New Year’s Day, I ate some wonderful Osechi prepared by the family of one of my Japanese friends.  All in all, much better than spending the day with a hangover!

In closing, wherever you may be, thank you for visiting this blog in 2011 and I hope that you continue to drop by in 2012.  Happy New Year and all the best for 2012!

Our Man in Japan.