Althouse: Christmas in Japan.

December 19, 2020

Christmas in Japan.

Japan is still trying to figure out Christmas from r/nextfuckinglevel

46 comments:

daskol said...: I want to see a Hannukah themed Mothra attacking it.; 12/19/20, 9:40 AM
Kay said...: Seems to me like they’re improving it.; 12/19/20, 9:41 AM
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...: where's 'zilla's mask?; 12/19/20, 9:41 AM
Kate said...: It blows steam/smoke breath? YASSSS; 12/19/20, 9:46 AM
Wince said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/19/20, 9:57 AM
Wince said...: Who is more confused?

Our Christmas trees look nothing like a Jewish guy named Murray Tannenbaum.; 12/19/20, 9:58 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Where's the Santa hat? It needs a Santa hat!; 12/19/20, 9:58 AM
robother said...: Celebrating the birth of the Son of Godzilla.; 12/19/20, 10:02 AM
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...: There's a Santa hat.

what she needs is real laser beams for eyes. If you're going to bastardize the Christian holy day that commemorates the birth of the Christ - do it up like this.; 12/19/20, 10:02 AM
Temujin said...: Have a very Godzirra Christmas.

I see my front lawn idea for next year. The HOA is sure to love it.; 12/19/20, 10:11 AM
Lurker21 said...: Nice for a laugh.; 12/19/20, 10:28 AM
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...: I kinda want one. She's beautiful.; 12/19/20, 10:28 AM
J. Farmer said...: They should take some lessons from Thais. We still have a condo in an area of Bangkok’s central business district called Ratchadamri, and the whole area (plus a lot of others) was always stunningly decorated for Christmas. And since I grew up in Florida, I was always perfectly fine with Christmas in stultifying temperatures.; 12/19/20, 10:29 AM
Darrell said...: KFC chicken and Domino's pizza. They have it all figured out.; 12/19/20, 10:38 AM
Mikey NTH said...: Japan. The sort of place where you go "Well, that's normal, that's normal, that's normal, where the heck did that come from?; 12/19/20, 10:41 AM
Meade said...: sayonara, baby; 12/19/20, 10:44 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Christmas is huge in Japan. This is a great decoration.; 12/19/20, 10:53 AM
traditionalguy said...: Brings to mind Puff the Magic Dragon. Puff also lived in a land beyond the sea.; 12/19/20, 11:01 AM
IgnatzEsq said...: Now look up Kentucky for Christmas commercials. Thank me later.; 12/19/20, 11:19 AM
Tomcc said...: It challenges my preconceptions. I'm inclined to like it.; 12/19/20, 11:19 AM
NKP said...: More celebration of western culture and traditions in Japan than any university in America. More fun without "making fun of..." than just about any people, anywhere.; 12/19/20, 11:21 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: I don't know that the Japanese are wrong. This is what Christmas feels like when they start with the incessant advertisements and obnoxious music before Thanksgiving is even off the table and in the dumpster.

It is relentless.; 12/19/20, 11:23 AM
Tomcc said...: Complete the art with a farkleberry tart!; 12/19/20, 11:44 AM
Joe Smith said...: They do a great job at Christmas. All of the shopping centers have trees...all of the main streets have lights...Tokyo Tower is lit up...special holiday drinks at Starbucks, etc.

It's really very nice, at least in Tokyo. We loved that time of year.

The best part is, everyone there is nice all the time, not just Christmas.

I would live there again in a heartbeat...; 12/19/20, 11:47 AM
stevew said...: 'Die Hard' is a Christmas movie. So is Godzilla.; 12/19/20, 12:18 PM
todd galle said...: I'm fine with it, given it's 2020.; 12/19/20, 12:42 PM
Arashi said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/19/20, 12:45 PM
ALP said...: Conan O'Brien did it first. Don't you know the Japanese are famous for adopting Western customs with a twist?

https://teamcoco.com/content/meet-conan-epic-holiday-set-decorator; 12/19/20, 12:46 PM
Arashi said...: The only issue with Christmas time in Japan is when you find out that most of the country is off for the seven to ten days before New Years, and that things like grocery stores, some restuarants, etc are closed - at least when I was there. But decorations everywhere, people polite in public, public transportaion that works, generally pleasant happy people out and about - I wish I could convince my wife to move there permanently - she is Japanese - but after moving to the US, she likes the open space and lack of crowding too much; 12/19/20, 12:46 PM
Joe Smith said...: "but after moving to the US, she likes the open space and lack of crowding too much"

The whole 'crowded' thing is a myth. Tokyo felt much less crowded than Manhattan to us. Our neighborhood was very quiet with very little foot traffic.

The only exception is commute hour when guys in white gloves do cram people into the subway cars.

Drive an hour outside of Tokyo and it's nothing but suburbs, farms, and open space.; 12/19/20, 1:02 PM
Arashi said...: Joe - My wife was born and raised in a small farming town called Kagemiishi in Fukushima. She thinks its too crowded, not me. I like Japan a lot and really wish they had a long term visa allowed for retired folks like myself, but they do not, which makes living there long term semi-difficult.; 12/19/20, 1:10 PM
Fernandinande said...: Celebrating the birth of the Son of Godzilla.

His only begotten Sonzilla; 12/19/20, 1:13 PM
Jim at said...: Man, those two bombs are still fucking with 'em.; 12/19/20, 1:53 PM
mikee said...: In 1983 I arrived in Texas as a grad student at Texas A&M. For the next several years, I enjoyed the Christmas display in the College Station Post Oak Mall, which included taxidermied armadillos covered in thick varnish, rotating gently on their stands. Christmadillos were not the strangest things I saw in Texas, but were among the more charming.

As to Godzilla festooned in holiday lights, here's hoping the electricity to run them was provided by a nuclear plant, the only appropriate power source for the King of all Monsters.; 12/19/20, 2:33 PM
Joe Smith said...: "I like Japan a lot and really wish they had a long term visa allowed for retired folks like myself, but they do not, which makes living there long term semi-difficult."

I thought you'd be OK if she was a citizen?

A good friend is married to a Japanese woman and he's been living in Tokyo for 20 years. Of course, he is working there so maybe that helps.

"She thinks its too crowded, not me."

Well, compared to some places in the US, especially the west, then everything is crowded : ); 12/19/20, 2:51 PM
narciso said...: ah yes godzookie,; 12/19/20, 3:14 PM
Arashi said...: Joe,

My wife became a US citizen due to the insane IRS situation that if I pass before her, the IRS would take half of my estate before she saw a penny if she was a foreign citizen. Absolute BS but is actually the law. She could revert back to Japanese citizenship which would simplify moving and living there, but she likes it here. There is also the issue of what does Japan do when China decides to go adventuring and our government throws all of our allies in the area under the bus because the CCP owns too many of them.; 12/19/20, 3:56 PM
Joe Smith said...: "There is also the issue of what does Japan do when China decides to go adventuring and our government throws all of our allies in the area under the bus because the CCP owns too many of them."

Didn't know about the IRS. I do know that we are one of the only nations that make citizens abroad pay income tax to the US instead of just to the country in which they live. We paid US taxes AND Japanese taxes.

Taiwan will be the canary in the coal mine. I don't know what prevents China from taking Taiwan the day after Biden is sworn in...it's the smart play.

Imho, Japan should get nukes...fuck China and N. Korea for that matter.

I am Nihon-jin at heart : ); 12/19/20, 4:23 PM
MayBee said...: Tokyo is beautiful at Christmas time. They definitely have it figured out.
Hong Kong is spectacular.

And J Farmer, I was only in Thailand once at Christmastime. I was amused that the Bangkok airport was decorated with beautiful lighted snow flakes.; 12/19/20, 4:31 PM
madAsHell said...: Christmadillos were not the strangest things I saw in Texas

Road kill armadillos in East Texas with empty bottles of Lone Star Beer clutched between between their feet.; 12/19/20, 5:12 PM
Joe Smith said...: "I was only in Thailand once at Christmastime."

So was I...hot as hell.

The larger hotels had trees and were decorated, some spectacularly so.; 12/19/20, 5:33 PM
gpm said...: >>My wife became a US citizen due to the insane IRS situation that if I pass before her, the IRS would take half of my estate before she saw a penny if she was a foreign citizen.

Not quite right. The IRS wouldn't take a penny to the extent you left your estate to a so-called QDOT (qualified domestic trust) for the benefit of your wife. Maybe overkill, but the current rules were adopted (in 1986, I believe) so a non-U.S. surviving spouse can't leave the country and eliminate any estate tax on the assets. The QDOT preserves the ability to tax the assets at the death of the surviving spouse.

NTM, that, at least at the present, the first $11M + wouldn't be taxed at all (and the rate on the excess is 40 percent, not quite half). How much of that will last remains to e seen.

BTW, it wasn't until 1981 that estate taxes could be fully avoided by leaving assets to a surviving spouse. Before that, and simplifying things a bit, only half the estate could be left tax-free to a surviving spouse. The rest was subject to taxes of up to 70 percent (before any consideration of state death taxes).

--gpm; 12/19/20, 6:27 PM
Narr said...: You so smart-- who wonna secon worwar?

Hideo Gump

Narr
NOT INSANE!; 12/19/20, 9:00 PM
Sam L. said...: Go, GO! Godzilla!!; 12/20/20, 9:09 AM
glam1931 said...: Sorry to say that this Godzilla shopping center display is over a decade old; Godzilla fans on Facebook are very tired of seeing it, as their non-Godzilla fan friends repost it every December like it's something new they just found.
Toho Studios protects its Godzilla character as aggressively as Disney protects Mickey Mouse; I have no doubt they were behind this promotional display.
Japan does secular Christmas very well. A more interesting peculiarity is the popularity of Kentucky Fried Chicken as a Christmas treat. Thanks to an aggressive clever bit of marketing some years ago, Tokyo is now typically festooned with statues of The Colonel dressed as Santa, hawking his 11 herbs and spices as if KFC was the most luxurious Christmas dinner imaginable. Folks have to get their orders in weeks in advance!; 12/21/20, 8:53 AM
glam1931 said...: I was just corrected by a friend, this exhibit was actually in 2001. So the comments are spectacularly out of date; it was clearly a promo for that year's Godzilla film in Japan. Typically they have been released in December, hence the holiday tie-in. In this case the movie was "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack", released in Japan on December 15th 2001.; 12/21/20, 4:17 PM

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