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© KYODOChristmas in Japan is a time for love, preferably romantic
By Donican Lam TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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© KYODO
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sensei258
And they still didn't answer the most important question, how on Earth did Kentucky Fried Chicken become a Christmas food?
Yubaru
Nearly 4,000 per hour to talk with a girl, who gets to eat and drink for free?!?!?
Damn I am the wrong sex here!
Jimizo
Too right. Why aren’t they watching The Great Escape?
Akie
Completely lacking understanding of Christmas.
lucabrasi
Knowing my abilities with the ladies, I'd be eating free for days....
papigiulio
Christmas (and New year) in Japan has become depressing for me in Japan. I know Christmas is not a Japanese tradition but I miss it. Miss cozyness of it from back home. The beautiful warm christmas light decroations compared to the blue leds here. No fireworks on NYE either. Thats one of the seasons that I really miss here.
Jessie Lee
You wanna be a chick magnet? Walk around carrying a bucket of fried chicken while singing "Last Christmas" by George Michael. Watch them drop like dominoes.
Madden
These places which are free for women but cost men money are scams! If I was one I'd just be going there for free meals and not care about the guys. If a woman actually wants to find a relationship (and one may say that they have a shorter timeline to do so), they should be willing to pay up as well!
Loki520
I actually feel pretty sad for anyone whose idea of a "romantic night out" includes KFC.
Other than Christmas is the time for unromantic love?
Jonathan Prin
I was thinking : everyday is an opportunity to offer a lady something to drink or eat, using Christmas as a date occasion would mean you have no culture.
The generosity and goodwill that stems from Christmas during colder times is something that should heat up people's heart. Not in Japan. I missed so much that atmosphere during the whole December when living in Japan.
And no holiday so it is a casual day !
Do they report any birth increase 9 months later ? In my country they they do with one week of delay ;)
Ex_Res
Japan has just jumped on a bandwagon, as an opportunity to make some money.
Strangerland
And you wonder why #metoo scares you so much...
Mocheake
Christmas is nothing special here, but they want to feel like it is so you hear all those 'romantic' (100 percent corny) songs like from Mariah Carey and George Michael. I do think the air surrounding new year's is different and pretty cool.
Jimizo
My Irish mum always serves Turkey to her English kids along with lamb. Belgian chocolates usually follow.
There’s always Irish beer, Scotch and Irish whisky, French wine, Spanish sherry and Russian vodka on the go as well.
Jtsnose
Be careful . . . I got sick after eating the cole slaw at a KFC in No. California.
Chico3
So much for the lack of meaning of the birth of CHRIST. As far as KFC is concerned, Costco chicken is far better.
Redtail Swift
Japan's dirty side certainly love their euphemisms. If it looks like a duck, moves like a duck and quacks like a duck, you'd better duck. You are never going to find a swan in places like these or on Tinder.
Concerned Citizen
While rather empty in comparison to traditional Christmas celebrations, any infusion of joy into Japan is a welcome sight.
koiwaicoffee
Won’t women feel like they are the product they sell in that place? Because they are, basically.
William77
I'm German-Italian and not anglosaxon,so in my places for Christmas we eat "zampone" pork leg "Agnolotti" and Panettone or Torrone.
On the other side Sauerbraten,Kartoffelsalad or Schweinebraten and Christstollen.
So yeah,each place it's own Christmas dinner tradition,but for sure we all celebrate it not as a Valentine's day 2 like in Japan.
Rizdown
I love Japanese Christmas.
Always have a good time.
Spend it with a cute Japanese lady who is happy to wear a miniskirt santa costume.
I'll cook a turkey.
Ah_so
It is part of the tradition in Britain and that is how it emerged in the USA.
Quick history anecdote - the British often ate guinea fowl at Christmas and the biggest producer was Turkey. The birds were colloquially known as "turkey birds". When Brits began to settle in America they found a bird that resembled the guinea fowl and called them the same. The name stuck.
hiragino4410
Thanks to "すてきなホリデイ (Suteki na Holiday)" by Mariya Takeuchi, a song featured by KFC Christmas ads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ldHZ2kasDo
William77
Turkey is a north american thing.
Back in the west part or the old continent we don’t eat it for christmas.
We have our local foods and traditions.
So it’s just part of the west.
Concerned Citizen
4000 yen an hour for guys while girls are for free? The SJW's will have a field day about this sexist outrage.....or will they?
KariHaruka
Fortunately my Christmas is being spent up in Sapporo with my wife and our daughters at our inlaws.
We'll be doing trips to the German Christmas market and Winter Illuminations in Odori Park in the days leading up to Christmas and then enjoy a white Christmas Day as a family.
Yubaru
Stay annoyed! Japan managed to take all the religious BS out of Christmas and made it their own!
And you know nothing of your own religion to suggest that Christmas is the birth of Christ! It's not,
Thank the pagans for December 25th!
Ah_so
Christmas is just a relabelling of the midwinter pagan festivities.
carp_boya
Thank you, Yubaru! Best comment on this story so far. I’m sick of Christians claiming Christmas is theirs. None of the main traditions have anything to do with Christ, so let Japan celebrate how it wants.
Brian Wheway
Ok so ladies get in for free, guys pay, so what happens if your a transgender? do you get charged half price?
Yubaru
Howw KFC became synonymous with Christmas!
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-kfc-became-a-christmas-tradition-in-japan-2016-12#the-promotion-went-national-in-japan-in-1974-under-the-name-kurisumasu-ni-wa-kentakkii-kentucky-for-christmas-3
PerformingMonkey
Christmas = KFC is ludicrous, but no less silly than us guzzling turkey in the West.
Strangerland
Depends on which KFC chicken you are talking. If you are comparing the chicken you get at KFC 364 days of the year that are not xmas, yes, Costco chickens are better. But those roast chicken on Xmas - they're delicious. It's not the same KFC chicken you get the rest of the year. I ordered one of them one year as a lark, and was amazed how good it was. I get one some years now. I may even get one this year.
mike1492
KFC?
inkochi
Certainly better value than the Philippine place round the back, and no need to practise bad English.
memoryfix
Even if Christmas celebration is BS in Japan ( btw, pretty much BS in North America now anyway), still, STILL, it makes winter blues a little more tolerable. I mean check the mood in Japan about January 10. Just awful. Unless you’re in some ski resort. Actually the mood is bad right after Christmas Eve ends, although New Years provides a slight - though sleepy - mood lift.
And, btw, you can’t compare Japan New Years to western Christmas. There isn’t much cheer to it. I mean, you don’t see Japanese going around saying Happy New Year to clerks in shops. It’s an in-family thing only. And a week long break from workaday life. And there’s no music. Really Christmas is unique in the world. It has music - carols and songs by the 100s. No other holiday event is comparable to Christmas anywhere.
Jessie Lee
Japan should copy Seinfeld and celebrate Festivus...
Bugle Boy of Company B
Thats funny, but now I’m generally curious. (Not questioning. Just curious.)
Laguna
Japanese Christmas is American New Years, and American New Years is Japanese Christmas. There's no problem with this. Just adjust your expectations.
Jitensha
Guys who think the ladies eat free thing is messed up...look. First, paying 30-40 bucks an hour for an UNLIMITED all you can eat and drink is pretty standard. Does it suck the person you're going with doesn't have to pay? Sure. But the reason it's free is because they want to encourage women to attend. If they don't have women there, they have no business. Same for lounges, clubs, etc. As a woman, the reason we need encouragement is because men will swarm us for their attention. It sounds awesome, but it's not awesome, it's scary. Men can be very intimidating. Just imagine being genetically shorter and less strong and having to confront people that want to do stuff to you without concern of your own wants/needs. I've had men who are strangers be uncomfortably creepy with me many times...I've been flashed several times, grabbed sexually and held down, felt an erection on my butt from a fellow train rider, stalked and followed, and of course let's not forget cat calling. Other women have it way worse. Please keep an open mind.
William77
As a christian I find it annoying to see CHRISTmas which is the birth of Christ for us to be reused as a sort of valentine’s day 2.
Then how about to celebrate Jewish or Islamic festivities?
Oh wait,because doing so will be offensive for their religions.
After all degrading Christians is easier,like shoot at the red cross.
Bugle Boy of Company B
No, the writ career, it would seem. I have a student who pays me 10,000 for two hours while we eat lunch in a private room at a nice restaurant. And she pays. Last month we drove out to a hotel on the beach. We had a traditional Japanese style lunch while we relaxed in a guest room. But she paid 20,000 because of the time involved in getting to the hotel and back.
Bugle Boy of Company B
Wrong career, that is.