The Christmas holiday means different things to different people, and each country has its own way of observing it. By and large, Japan is a Buddhist nation, although it seems that many people here don’t consciously think about themselves in terms of the religion, despite the Buddhist altar, incense and candles in their house — it’s just atari-mae (ah-TAH-ree MAH-eh, mean “taken for granted”) that these objects should be in a Japanese home. Because there isn’t a long tradition of celebrating the yuletide as there is in the West, Christmas tends to be a bit of an external thing here, less of a holiday (not a holiday at all, actually, as everyone has to go to work), and more of a special time for different segments of society, such as children who look forward to presents, couples who are planning a special date, and friends gathering for a Christmas party with lots of karaoke. One thing I’ve noticed is that Christmas tends to be an American thing in Japan, having presumably been filtered through the U.S. occupation from 1945-1951, and Japanese today know who Santa Claus is but have little awareness of “Father Christmas” and other British images of the holiday (although they have Christmas Cake here). This is a bit of a bummer, since I’ve always loved the images presented in Tolkien’s Father Christmas Letters (a treat if you don’t know them, hunt them down on Amazon), and read them to my American/Japanese kids often.
Just a week after Christmas comes the most important of days in Japan, Oshogatsu, aka New Year’s Day. Everyone is making preparations now, buying New Year’s decorations to hang on their doors, display in the foyers of their homes, or in some instances, fix to the hoods of their cars. One of the most famous types of decorations is called kagami mochi, lit. “mirror rice cake,” attractively arranged pressed rice that are delicious with a dollop of soy sauce. Tonight it’s time for us to make our nengajo, or New Year’s Cards, which we mail out to all our friends here. I’m torn between choosing something from the excellent Taste of Japan nengajo art collection we’ve posted to the site today or taking a picture of the kids with our dog Chibi (since 2006 is the Year of the Dog).
After school my son attends a juku, an after-hours study school that compliments his school curriculum and ostensibly covers some of the subjects he’s learning at school, but in Japanese (since his school is 70% English). His juku teacher likes to give mind-bending math problems to the students and see if they can find the answers. Here are two such problems that stumped me. Each of the equations below is incorrect. Add one straight line somewhere in each of the two equations to make it correct. See here for the answer.
He’re happy to announce that Ever 17 is now in stock. A great new release from Hirameki International for Windows PCs, this is an incredibly dramatic bishoujo title that all fans should play. It is May 1, 2017, and without warning, seven people are trapped in an undersea marine park. Water, air and food are in short supply, and the protective bulkhead can only withstand the pressure of the surrounding water for 119 hours. How will they interact, by cooperating or fighting each other for the scarce resources? Will love grow between the doomed members? Who will betray whom? A super new interactive title that all fans can enjoy, in stock in San Diego!
We’ve gotten in a huge volley of some of our last stock of 2006 anime, idol, JPOP and other calendars, so now is a great time to browse our selection and make your orders. Restocked calendars include this year’s runaway hit Tsubasa Chronicle (all three versions), the always-popular Studio Ghibli, Totoro and Domo-kun calendars, lovely Leon Kadena, Gackt’s amazing offering, beautiful Japanese women in hot springs, famous castles of Japan, and a whole lot more. The stock we have will be the last we get in for these calendars, so hurry!
