Merry Xmas

Merry Xmas from Kintama and the rest of Kyoto. OK, so it's a little early to celebrate Christmas, but that doesn't stop anyone in America or Japan from putting up Christmas decorations. This tree is located in Kyoto Station right near the Mister Donut (with the best donut in the world...the Pon d' Ring). It is already frequented by couples and non-couples who want to "enjoy" the holiday spirit. OK, so there is no holiday spirit in Japan.

What? Who is this bigot that took over the Kintama blog? Well, it's still the same guy, grumpy over the fact that he has two classes on Christmas day. Here's hoping a presentation doesn't get thrown on top of that. That salt would feel great on the wound....

Anyway, how do Japanese celebrate Christmas? They obviously put up decorations.

In Japan, Christmas is more of a dating holiday. Most common travel destinations are not family's homes, but rather Tokyo Disneyland, fancy restaurants, and the like. I would be expected to take my girlfriend to some date joint rather than bringing her home to my family...well, since it is a long commute home...going to see her family (cue scary music).

Instead of getting together on Christmas, people get together with their families around New Year's, a much bigger holiday in Japan (and one in which I don't have classes!). That day, they celebrate by eating osechi and various local variations of dishes. Older people also give younger kids money; and companies give their employees a nice bonus of roughly one month's salary.

It is also a time to get away from Japan and to go to some place warmer. In Japan, you only have 3 designated weeks for vacations. You also have some floating holidays, but it is frowned upon when you take them. It was hard for me to get away from work here in Japan when I had the flu. The doctor told me to take a week off, but I only took four days off; two of them were my "weekend" anyway.

The rush to get away creates airfare rates 3x their norms. I spent $1,500 to go to Thailand the year of the tsunami (Thank God I don't like beaches or I wouldn't be writing this blog today). I spent a third of that with 5 nights at a hotel included in October of 2006. (For those Thai history enthusiasts, you will remember that time as the end of the last coup.)

This time, Kintama will be doing something Japanese and saving up his little cash to visit his friends in Korea in February....Although Thailand is looking ripe for another coup.....