2015 is winding down, and everyone in Japan is rushing around picking up things they need for New Year’s, including traditional decorations, delicious mochi rice cakes, and lots of cleaning supplies, since you can’t cross into the new year in Japan without first cleaning your house from top to bottom. The Japanese are a very social people — this is one of the secrets to their happiness and long life spans — and if you visit any pub or restaurant this time of year, you’ll find it find it filled with groups of company employees, members of university clubs and other friends enjoying a year-end “forget the year” parties in which they sweep away any bad things that happened in 2015 while drinking beer and sake together. Once January 1st arrives, all of Japan pretty much shuts down for 3 days as everyone relaxes and takes it easy. To avoid delays with shipping, make an order now and we’ll rush it out before the holiday!
Like many fans, I’ve been enjoying the new Star Wars film, going to see it several times with my son and with friends from Tokyo. As I’ve written about before, there’s a lot of Japan intermingled with Star Wars, starting with names. The Jedi famously take their name from 時代劇 jidai geki or Japanese period dramas that George Lucas was a fan of, and if you’ve ever practiced martial arts you’ve probably tied an 帯 obi (kimono belt), where Obi-wan’s name comes from. Count Dooko gets his evil-sounding name from 毒 doku, Japanese for poison, and the new Maz Kanata’s last name means “far off, in the distance.” (Buzz Lightyear’s “to infinity and beyond!” line is 無限お彼方へ！mugen no kanata e! in Japanese.) Over the weekend, websites in Japan were buzzing with news of J.J. Abrams’ confirmation that the planet Takodana, where a battle takes place during the second act of the new film, got its name from 高田馬場 Takadanobaba station in Tokyo, which is famous for being as odd-sounding in Japanese as it is in English.
2015 is in the final stretch, and J-List is helping you get there with our popular December EMS sale, which is in its last week now. Order $100 or more of Japan-based items and choose EMS as your shipping method, and get $25 off your order, automatically. Browse the most popular items now!
