Christmas Time in Tokyo VS. Christmas Time in Newcastle.

Update is needed.


So this post is probably going to seem a little premature, considering its only the 26th of November and there are still what like, 29 shopping days left till Christmas. But England has SNOW! And everyone is so excited and feeling all Christmasy and I'm feeling a little left out!!


So I received this picture yesterday from Chris ♥. If It looks like it was taken right by my house. How exciting, all that snow!!

So much snow at home in Newcastle <3

I then had a lovely conversation with a friend of mine yesterday about which Wellies (a word the Americans here find hilarious) she should buy to combat the bad weather. I even heard that some schools and roads were closed, I think England's been caught a little bit off guard by this, apparently the earliest snowfall in 17 years! Surely it can't be as bad as last year. Still its nice to see that England is getting ready for Christmas. 

It's a little different here in Tokyo. As you know, I'm currently in the middle of my 秋休み (akiyasumi -autumn holiday). The colours on the trees are beautiful right now so many people spend their free time visiting beautiful scenic areas. This is a photo of Nikko National Park.  Nikko is famous for its beautiful autumn foliage (or 紅葉-momiji). I was actually planning on travelling here for autumn break but it turned out to be too expensive and quite difficult and we didn't have enough people to go.  It's now past the peak time for viewing the autumn colours, but I hope I can visit here sometime anyway. If your interested in seeing more pictures, click here for the website I got this image from, it has a lot of nice pictures.

紅葉 at Nikko

The weather here is still very mild, a nice 15 degrees usually and most days I go out without a coat. A little different to England's cold snap right now.

I received a few other photos from home this week. This time from my mammy. They were photos of Fenwicks Window. For those who aren't familiar with this; it's a mechanical shop window display in Fenwicks which tells a Christmas story. They have it every year and its kinda a big deal because there are only a few Fenwicks stores within the UK, Newcastle's being the biggest and the only one to have the window display. I remember a few years a go the story was a bit ridiculous and involved aliens, but this year it seems very traditional. From what I can see it looks like its based on Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer?

Though there are a few Christmas Trees here and there, Tokyo does not have anything like Fenwicks window.

Actually Christmas is celebrated quite differently in Japan. On the whole its seen as a couples holiday. I have heard my female Japanese friends here talk of how めんどくさい(mendokusai - bothersome) it can be if you are alone at Christmas, because everywhere you go there are couples holding hands and smooching. URGH!
Kids still receive gifts in Japan, but they don't give them; as the gifts come only from 'Santa' (I recently discovered its very Northern to just say Santa...but you know what I mean... Farther Christmas/Santa Claus/ Saint Nick). Also instead of Christmas Day, the main celebrations seem to take place on Christmas Eve.

A Christmas cake in Japan is not a boozy fruitcake topped with marzipan and icing, which can feed you for the whole year. A Christmas cake in Japan is basically a strawberry shortcake that's eaten on Christmas eve; plain sponge, whipped cream and topped with strawberries. We are contemplating buying one for our flat from Cozy Corner, take a look...

http://www.cozycorner.co.jp/

They're cute right.
Thanks for reading :) x