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Every Christmas season Yokkaichi City, on the outskirts of Nagoya but in Mie Prefecture, holds the annual Santa Train. This is where students from Yokkaichi University dress up like Santa Claus and hand out snacks and balloons to lucky children on board.
However, like most fun things, this too was cancelled for fears of rising COVID-19 infections across Japan. It’s perfectly understandable as the last thing anyone wants to get from jolly old St. Nick is a vicious lung infection.
That doesn’t mean the organizers at Sangi Railway have given up altogether though. They still plan to convert one of their seven trains that run along the Hokusei Line into the Christmas Train.
Unlike the Santa Train which is a limited time event, the Christmas Train can be seen running for about a month between Kuwana and Inabe Cities with its livery all decked out in festive themes and “Merry Christmas” printed along the side.
This year too, the Christmas Train is rolling as we speak until Dec 27, but with some significant changes. Santa and his reindeer that usually grace the cars will now don face masks. As of yet, there is no evidence that reindeer can either spread or contract COVID-19, but better safe than sorry.
Also, the “Merry Christmas” greeting printed on the side has been amended to read “Merry Christmask” in an effort to remind riders to keep each other safe by covering their faces.
Sources: Sangi Railway, Mainichi Shimbun
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- https://soranews24.com/2020/12/17/all-aboard-the-merry-christmask-train-in-mie-prefecture/
4 Comments
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Yrral
Christmas is not a national holiday in Japan, culture appropriation
Strangerland
Form whom are they appropriating it, pray tell?
Khuniri
Yrrai: "Christmas is not a national holiday in Japan, cultural appropriation"
As a Catholic, I used to rant and rave about how in Christmas in Japan has been used and distorted for purposes commercial, hedonistic, and frivolous. And then I came to realize that I was falling into an "identity politics" trap. We Christians may treasure and honour Christmas as a sacred event, but we do not own it. I am sad that so few Japanese have any understanding about what it means, but I should not take all the "Christmas cake" stuff as a personal affront.
Before COVID-19, Japanese Catholic churches would be packed at Christmas Eve masses with non-Christians filled with curiosity and sometimes longing. More than once, a convert has been thus won.
There are many wishy-washy and lapsed Christians in the so-called Christian world who still "celebrate" Christmas hardly less thoughtlessly. After all, it was not the Japanese who brazenly replaced Christ with Santa Claus.