Articles from December 2017

This time I simply joined colleagues who wanted to Tokyo, more precisely to Odaiba. Odaiba is an artificial island in the bay of Tokyo and has some attractions. In order to save some money and because we were a larger group, we bought a kind of group ticket for the regional train instead of the Shinkansen or the equally acceptable bus. Continue Reading

I only write about this topic a bit because I do not presume to explain it completely. Nevertheless, it receives its own entry because it is an important part of today’s Japanese culture. Kawaii (in Hiragana  わ い い) means something like “sweet, cute, childish, lovely or even attractive”. His derivatives kawaisō and kawairashii can Continue Reading

Merry Christmas everywhere,    or not? Clearly in a Christian country Christmas is celebrated, but Japan is not Christian. Nevertheless, Christmas is known here, albeit in a different way. For one thing, it’s not celebrated, these are normal days here. But what exists is a commercial variant. This day is also heavily promoted by retailers with discounts. Otherwise, you see only a little Christmas decoration which is also strongly based on the American variant and what I have seen so far in Shizuoka, seemed rarely beautiful, often rather misplaced or cheesy (from my point of view). The Japanese love to dress up, so you can buy a lot of different costumes, from reindeer to Santa Claus. Especially many different Miss Santa Claus costumes were to be had, Shame be to him who thinks evil of it. The Japanese are more in love with the events, but I was told at the expense of their own festivals and culture. Another (miss) need is that the Japanese combine Christmas Eve with chicken wings and potato wedges, thanks to Kentucky Fried Chicken … ..Continue Reading