Life in Japan: Seasonal Celebrations for a Brit in Japan
So having done a little summary about my Halloween in Japan, it only makes sense for me to summarise what my Christmas and New Year was like.
Of course, spending Christmas in any foreign country is gonna be a little bit weird, simply because it’s not what you’re used to and maybe you’ll be lacking some family members. For me, my immediate family were all here so that’s one less weird thing.
Now a big problem for us was the lack of a decent oven to cook a turkey...
After much debate, we decided to give up on coming up with some variation of a roast and instead settled on booking a nice French restaurant for lunch.
The restaurant was très magnifique and the best French food I’d eaten outside of France, and even better than a few meals I’d eaten inside of France. And while atmospherically the restaurant truly felt like a Lyonnaise bouchon, it didn’t have much of a Christmassy vibe, though that didn’t take away from how nice the meal was.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, seeing as the Christmas period really seemed to start way back on November 1st, when I noticed that in majority of the shops Halloween decorations seemed to have disappeared overnight, and had been replaced by Christmas trees and Santa hats.
Personally, this is much too early for me to start feeling festive, so I felt like a bit of a grinch, sighing disapprovingly to myself as I walked through a mall on that day.
It’s worth noting how much effort had gone into the decorations, far beyond the same few Christmas lights that went up every year in my home town. As we got further into November, though, I began to appreciate the decorations more and more.
Yet, as time went on the decorations began to subside, even before Christmas had passed, so by the time we reached Christmas Day, it really felt like the season was on its way out.
So Christmas was over before it had even started, and despite our family spending our Christmas morning in the usual way (opening gifts and such) and then enjoying a fancy (though non-traditional) meal by the time I arrived at work, I re
ally felt like Christmas had never even happened.
(And yes, I worked on Christmas Day - in fact a lot of places seemed to be going about their usual daily business).
At work we managed to play a Christmas playlist for a few hours, before we got to the third rendition of Wham!’s ‘Last Christmas’ and decided we could take it no longer and switched to an equally tragic popular chart playlist.
Now New Years was a little more exciting.
Again, I was working, but it was a New Year Countdown party, so things felt a little more festive from the get-go, even though my manager ignored my coworker’s and my request that we be allowed to wear something a little more fancy than our usual uniform (instead we made a pact to both come in wearing red lipstick and nicer makeup than usual).
It must be said that for the first few hours where I was running around restocking the buffet table with food and trying to enforce some sort of control to the hungry customers, I was a little less than happy (and a little more than stressed).
However, as the countdown neared, all the staff found our way to the front and welcomed the New Year together, enjoyed a quick glass of champagne and took a few pictures before returning to our duties.
Finally, the real fun started when we got rid of all the party goers and tided the bar. We headed towards a local temple, where some food stalls and stuff had been set up.
Here we ate and drank and chatted pretty much until the early hours. A few of us wandered up to the temple to pray (while I carried a can of chūhai and worried I was being disrespectful by bringing alcohol with me) and then did some weird thing where we got a strip of paper that gave our fortune for the year.
Apparently I got the best fortune, so we’ll see about that, but I couldn’t read it as it was all in Japanese. Besides which, by this point I would've been too drunk to read it in a language I could understand.
Anyway after this we all seemed to say our goodbyes and make our ways home, where I promptly collapsed into bed, still clutching my weird piece of paper (that I believe I should have tied to a nearby tree or something but I wanted to keep it for the memories).
And that was the end of the festive season and the start of a brand new year.
Of course, spending Christmas in any foreign country is gonna be a little bit weird, simply because it’s not what you’re used to and maybe you’ll be lacking some family members. For me, my immediate family were all here so that’s one less weird thing.
Now a big problem for us was the lack of a decent oven to cook a turkey...
After much debate, we decided to give up on coming up with some variation of a roast and instead settled on booking a nice French restaurant for lunch.
The restaurant was très magnifique and the best French food I’d eaten outside of France, and even better than a few meals I’d eaten inside of France. And while atmospherically the restaurant truly felt like a Lyonnaise bouchon, it didn’t have much of a Christmassy vibe, though that didn’t take away from how nice the meal was.
Personally, this is much too early for me to start feeling festive, so I felt like a bit of a grinch, sighing disapprovingly to myself as I walked through a mall on that day.
It’s worth noting how much effort had gone into the decorations, far beyond the same few Christmas lights that went up every year in my home town. As we got further into November, though, I began to appreciate the decorations more and more.
Yet, as time went on the decorations began to subside, even before Christmas had passed, so by the time we reached Christmas Day, it really felt like the season was on its way out.
So Christmas was over before it had even started, and despite our family spending our Christmas morning in the usual way (opening gifts and such) and then enjoying a fancy (though non-traditional) meal by the time I arrived at work, I re
(And yes, I worked on Christmas Day - in fact a lot of places seemed to be going about their usual daily business).
At work we managed to play a Christmas playlist for a few hours, before we got to the third rendition of Wham!’s ‘Last Christmas’ and decided we could take it no longer and switched to an equally tragic popular chart playlist.
Now New Years was a little more exciting.
Again, I was working, but it was a New Year Countdown party, so things felt a little more festive from the get-go, even though my manager ignored my coworker’s and my request that we be allowed to wear something a little more fancy than our usual uniform (instead we made a pact to both come in wearing red lipstick and nicer makeup than usual).
It must be said that for the first few hours where I was running around restocking the buffet table with food and trying to enforce some sort of control to the hungry customers, I was a little less than happy (and a little more than stressed).
However, as the countdown neared, all the staff found our way to the front and welcomed the New Year together, enjoyed a quick glass of champagne and took a few pictures before returning to our duties.
Finally, the real fun started when we got rid of all the party goers and tided the bar. We headed towards a local temple, where some food stalls and stuff had been set up.
Here we ate and drank and chatted pretty much until the early hours. A few of us wandered up to the temple to pray (while I carried a can of chūhai and worried I was being disrespectful by bringing alcohol with me) and then did some weird thing where we got a strip of paper that gave our fortune for the year.
Anyway after this we all seemed to say our goodbyes and make our ways home, where I promptly collapsed into bed, still clutching my weird piece of paper (that I believe I should have tied to a nearby tree or something but I wanted to keep it for the memories).
And that was the end of the festive season and the start of a brand new year.
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