Santa-san

I took this photo outside my local KFC in Shin-Osaka. Almost every KFC I saw in Japan had a life sized likeness of Colonel Sanders and he was occasionally dressed up in different costumes. Turkey is incredibly difficult to find in Japan so most people go to KFC for a bucket of chicken for their Christmas dinner. We walked in the bitter cold to our KFC only to discover the staff standing outside the front doors, informing everyone that the wait for a 15 piece bucket was two hours. We decided to forgo the chicken and instead went out for yaki-niku (Korean BBQ). The waitresses were dresses up in slutty Mrs Claus outfits and the food was ridiculously expensive, but delicious. Christmas isn't a big deal in Japan since Buddism and Shinto are the predominant religions, however our uber consumerist holiday doesn't go unnoticed. Apparently Christmas is "for lovers" as I was told by several students, one of which asked me if I had a lover. Yikes. It's a day for couples of spend together and go out to dinner. Strange. Oh yeah, and everyone eats Christmas cake. Not the kind of Christmas cake I know, fruitcake, the stuff no one ever eats except my Mom, but actual cake with icing, but just given a festive name. We wandered home through some back streets, looking for signs of Christmas, or even a twinkling light or two, but alas it wasn't to be. The only festive sites we saw were even more slutty looking Mrs Clauses standing outside the numerous convenience stores, selling Christmas cake. The following morning we woke up to discover that every single Christmas decoration in the city had been taken down and replaced with New Year's decorations. Ah, Santa-san...where did you go?