J-Christmas

On Christmas Day I have heard it is "traditional" for Japanese families to go to KFC and eat a whole lot of chicken. Roast chicken is traditional Christmas fare after all. This, and other familiar but distorted practices make up what it is like to have Christmas in Japan. I'm sure for people who celebrate Christmas with gusto and faith in their home countries, all this bizarro world Christmas stuff is more unnerving than it is for me. My Christmases are traditionally spent wishing I was Christian so that I could get presents and decorate trees. When on November first they start playing electronic carols in Pick n Pay, it means little more to me than the sudden abundance of chocolate mallow eggs. Even this isn't all that exciting because that's what Easter means to me too.

My school insisted that I give a Christmas themed lesson this week. They know I am Jewish just like they know I am South African but I suppose all white people are the same to my co-workers (in the same way that us whiteys lump all Asians in the same boat). So a Christmas week it will be! I went all-out making a convoluted board game in the shape of a Christmas tree and worked long hours making present shaped question cards with such questions as:
The baby Jesus was visited by three wise
a) goats
b) kings
c) angels
and
Santa Claus says
a) Ho ho ho
b) He he he
Finally the little Jewish girl who went to A.P.P.S who still lives inside of me can do crafts with green, read and gold paper!

The Santa questions in the game have proved to be no problem so far. Everyone here knows that elves work in workshops, not gnomes and that the big man says Ho ho ho in his jolly red suit. The Jesus questions have been a little more problematic. One class had no one in it who had even heard of Jesus Christ. Initially I was shocked but you know - fair dos I reckon - I don't know the names of any bigwig Shinto gods (I don't even know if gods is the right term). Why does Japan do Christmas with such gusto though? Its really big here, much bigger than in South Africa. Everyone puts lights up in the windows. Suddenly all the food on sale is in Christmas wrapping or Christmas shapes. The malls play Mariah Carey and Wham! hits. Why? I asked a fellow teacher and they said that Christmas has been around since the end of the war and is growing in popularity. At first I thought this was a revolting tragedy - that the country had it forced on them and had to learn to love it. But then again, it is quite lovable. I like the twinkly lights and the cinnamon flavoured...everything. Should I feel bad for the Japanese people who have to have Christmas or should I feel sorry for the Jesus whose birthday has been forgotten in amongst the shopping. Maybe its a bit grinchy to feel sorry or bitter either way. Everyone appears to be enjoying themselves, even me. The one thing I know I will never take part in, however many Kurisu masu I spend here is the Christmas cake phenomenon. Somewhere along the line Japan heard about Christmas cake and decided to make it their own...and a big deal. Like real Christians feel about the whole birth of Jesus thing, I think that's how people here feel about Christmas cake. They are everywhere and they are not the stodgy brown fruit loaves with rock icing I think of when I play Christmas cake association. These cakes are enourmous white flurries - there is enough soft icing on them to fashion into ski slopes and they are decorated with lace and glitter and holly and and and. They also cost upward of 10 000 Yen...so about R1000.00. I don't care how delicious they look, I hope I never spend that much on holiday sugar.

The Christmas in Japan phenomenon (and believe me, it is rather phenomenal) is a crude but in no way unique example of how Japan has adopted something Western and run with it. Western isn't even the right term because Christmas here is thought of as American specifically and this is the point I am trying desperately to get to (thanks for bearing with me). Why does Japan embrace all that is American? Why don't they despise America the way the French despise America? One could say they have more reason than anybody. But they don't. They lurve America. It's a question that smells complicated - one part cinnamon to two parts uranium. Hmmmm... Any ideas?