A Japanese Christmas

Firstly, I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas. I hope you get a well deserved rest! I'm sure it's been hectic, hopefully in a good way and you just need some time to recharge your batteries, catch up on sleep, eat good food and be around family. So I hope that's the case for you. Nick and I will be celebrating just us this year with little Bailey (our dog) as we're being cautious (or more our parents are). We'll share our culinary creations on Instagram if anyone is curious @makesmisohungry

Now, if you ever wondered “Do Japanese people celebrate Xmas” - the answer is YES and here's how:

 When I was working as an in-house lawyer in Tokyo 10 years ago, my single female colleague told me she was feeling down. She said it was stressful as Christmas was round the corner and she had no one to share a KFC bucket with. It felt depressing to her to just be at home with family (who she lived it at the time). 

I was out there on my own and invited her over to eat it with me in my studio apartment in Sendagaya. We had to book it weeks in advance having already been told by 2 KFC’s they were booked up. What?! 

We ate, we drank, we came up with an action plan to finding her a man (she’s now happily married to a colleague in another department of this large Japanese corporation) and I shared with her that in the UK we traditionally spend Xmas with family so it was interesting that for her the prospect was depressing.

So yup, the rumours are true. While obviously not everyone does it, it’s a tradition that still lives on today.

Thanks for reading this! I hope you found it interesting.