The warmest Christmas Greetings from J-List! We hope that everyone is having an great holiday wherever you are, surrounded by good family and friends. We’re enjoying ourselves on the island of Guam, a tropical paradise located about 1500 miles from Tokyo, one of the few places where Christmas is less “Christmas-like” then sunny San Diego. Because it’s a territory of the U.S. courtesy of the Spanish-American War of 1898, it’s blessed with all the comforts of home, like Taco Bell and Tony’s Ribs and what is likely the only K-Mart in Asia. Besides going on a dolphin-watching cruise and getting in some quality snorkeling in, we’re stocking up on all those useful items like Pop-Tarts, Campbell’s soup and Triscuits (go ahead, try living in a country that doesn’t have Triscuits, you’ll pine for them too). During one day trip, we passed near the portion of the jungle made famous by Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese solder who remained in Guam, unaware that the war had ended for 28 years. He hid in a tiny cave, eating bugs and rats and making his own clothes out of jungle plants until he was eventually discovered in 1972. The jungle where he lived is quite a tourist spot now.
Christmas in Japan is a lot different from the rest of the world. Without a genuine tradition of celebrating yuletide, the Japanese often choose to import the more “fun” elements of the season, with Santa-san (yes, they really call him that) and presents and Christmas songs, and not so many of the solemn, pleasant themes found in America and Europe. Christians do celebrate Christmas, attending a special mass after they get off work (Christmas isn’t a holiday in Japan). For my first Christmas in Japan, I attended mass at the local Baptist church, and was surprised at how similar everything was to what I’d seen back home, except that the Bible was in Japanese. But by and large religious themes play a small part in Christmas here — instead, Christmas is something for kids, for couples to go on that special date, and for friends to have a fun Christmas party with lots of loud music and maybe firecrackers. This is a major difference between Japan and the U.S.: we are usually solemn on Christmas and have a blast on New Year’s, but things are done in reverse here.
When you live in a foreign country and learn a foreign language, it’s natural that you internalize the values of the people there. I’m sure that foreigners who emigrate to Canada tend to pick up the Canadian way of doing things, while my sister, who’s lived in Germany for many years, is no doubt very Germanized inside (we’ve got the Axis languages covered quite well in my family). In Japan, there’s a concept called hansei, which means to reflect on what you’ve done wrong and show the proper humble attitude, an important skill required for Japanese society to function smoothly. At the airport coming here, I had a problem with my passport — I’d stupidly forgotten to get a re-entry stamp put in at the local Immigration Office, meaning that I might not be able to re-enter Japan when we returned, even though I have permanent residence status. My wife was beside herself with worry — would she and the kids have to leave for Guam without me? I knew, though, that striking the proper contrite attitude (not faked of course, I was truly sorry for forgetting to get the stamp) with the immigration officials would somehow create a solution, and sure enough they come through for me. While they were working on putting the stamp in my passport, there was another gaijin with a similar problem in the office with me. He was acting angry and frustrated rather than apologetic, and was causing more problems for himself by doing so.
Remember that we’ve got less than a week in our first-ever free shipping sale on Domo-kun products going on this month, which allows you to bag a bunch of cool Domo-kun stuff and not pay any shipping (yes, even if you choose EMS and yes, even the Really Big Domo Plush that we’ve still got in stock). This sale will never be repeated, so you should get your order in before Dec 31st if you want to score some cool Domo-kun stuff.
