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Published: December 20th 2006
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A picture of December in Canada... snow, bustling shopping malls, a mild overdose of Christmas music, Christmas celebrations, friends, family, an overabundance of food, New Year's plans, general merriment. At this time of year, I innately look forward to these things. For my first Christmas far from home, I've concentrated on enjoying what I can of the festive season and learning about the Japanese way of celebrating during the holidays. Here's a little of what I've learned.
New Year's is perhaps the grandest celebration in the Japanese culture. This day starts at the crack of dawn. While we ring in the New Year with the changing of the clock, their festivities focus around the rising of the sun. They spend the day with family and enjoy a buffet of food. They also visit a temple or shrine as this day has a spiritual significance of letting out the old or the bad and refreshing one's self for the year ahead. There are also collective festivities with food and lights and the like, which I understand to be quite the celebration.
But of course, in amongst this Japanese tradition, we must expect that Western culture has sailed it's way over
Potlucking!
Keiko and Hiro to this little island and exercised it's influence. Many Japanese people do celebrate Christmas, but in a predominantly Buddhist and Shinto culture, it is on a much lesser scale than back in Canada. Houses aren't generally decorated with lights, but some families have Christmas trees, and there are certainly festive lights and decorations around town. We share the same jolly old Santa Claus who brings toys to the young Japanese kids the same as he does elsewhere in the world. Christmas day is generally only a family day for the small Christian population or when young children are involved, otherwise it's a general day for just enjoying life.
One thing that I find very intriguing here is both the quantity and the quality of the Christmas music played in public. It is no less abundant than in Canada. This is somewhat to be expected in a capitalist country during the holiday season. What I find more interesting is that in Canada, a predominantly Christian society, many businesses and organizations are careful to screen holiday music and decorations for lyrics that might have a root in Christ, and yet in Japan, I often hear very Christian carols and see "Merry
Potlucking!2
Mayumi and Chieko - my students Christmas" signs all the time. Of course I realize that many people may simply not understand the English songs and would not know the difference one way or another. But I also recognize that these people know that Christmas is about celebrating Jesus Christ's birthday and they don't seem to have any problem being part of that. I love the openness that the Japanese have to different faiths. Whether it is their own or another, they just really seem to embrace religion and I really respect that.
So, how have I enjoyed this Christmas season thus far? Well, last weekend Miyoko and I hosted a Christmas potluck here at the house. Expecting about 20 mouths to feed, of course I was a little nervous about the small size of the specially ordered whole chicken and my first attempt at making home-made perogies. Had I really thought logically about the situation I would have saved myself the worry. The etiquette of the Japanese would never allow them to bring less than their share of food and the sheer size of them would never allow them to eat more than their share! And so the left-overs continue to haunt me. The
Potlucking!3
Mmmmm... perogies! night provided wonderful food, drink, and company and was well worth any unnecessary worry.
This past weekend held a mass of activity. First, Friday night was a small wedding party for Brandon and Saori, an ACC teacher and a manager who are tying the knot this month. We all crammed into Figaro's with all of its 20 seats and had a smashing good time that eventually came to an end at about 5 am after the last of us polished off our game of Scrabble and our drinks. (Oh yeah, I should have added drunken board games to my list of December pictures... ah, good times.)
On Saturday, I spent my first day touring Nagoya. Of course, I've been many times before, but this time, I played tourist. I went with Simran's friend, Erica, who's visitng for a few weeks and we had a very tiring but awesome day. Saw Nagoya Castle, the city's main tourist attraction. This was my first Japanese castle experience. It was awesome. Much different from European castles where renovations are made to keep the castles looking as authentic as possible. Here, the history was maybe a little more authentic than the structure itself.
You can't really rebuild a perfect replica of something after it's been destroyed by World War II air raids. I really appreciated that this castle told its story with true authenticity. From the castle, we headed to the port. Nagoya port has a great aquarium and observatory. We also took in the Villaggia Italia with its little gondolas and magnificent pizza scents. And of course, a ride on the huge-ass ferris wheel at the amusement park was in order to take in the view of it all from above. I've decided that I really like ports. They're pretty corny, but it seems so because they really try hard to impress and welcome their new visitors.
So along came Sunday and off I went on a bus tour with Keiko, Hiro, and Aya, to Kobe, where we also met up with Lesley, Simran, and Erica. Kobe, another port city, is known for its foreign settlements and its beef. We took in an awesome little Chinatown, even through the pouring rain. The main purpose of the trip though, was to see the famous Christmas illumination. I don't know which was more awesome, the lights or the crowds. We were serioudly herded
like cattle through zig-zagging streets until we finally reached the lights. They were pretty incredible though.
So now this week is all about class Christmas celebrations and preparing for my Christmas break travels. On the 23rd, I'm off to Hong Kong where my sister Dore and I will meet up and spend Christmas with my friend Paula. From there, the Pilon girls will head to Thailand, through Malaysia, to Singapore and then Seoul, before I return home on January 7th. Though I'd love to be at home with the lot of my family and friends for Christmas, I am getting increasingly excited to see my sister, my friend and a whole lot of South East Asia.
Until my return, I wish you all lots of love and peace for a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
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Paula
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Woo!
Yesssss! I finally made it into Kara's blog!