We have had a busy couple of weeks since our last post!
On December 15th and 16th, the United States Army Japan Band (Christian's band) played a Christmas concert for the Japanese people. They sold 2800 seats between the two nights, almost filling the hall, so it was very well attended! I was able to get a ticket for one of the nights and I was impressed! They played everything from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to O Holy Night/Jesu Bambino. The only downside was that the hall they performed at (which holds 1500 people) only has about 30 spaces in their parking lot! So of course the parking lot was full probably at least an hour before the show started, requiring me to find creative parking solutions! But it was so worth it!
On December 23, we went with the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Center (MWR) on a guided trip to the Imperial Palace to celebrate Emperor Akihito's birthday! See the video below, and scroll down to see more pictures of the Imperial Palace grounds! Super fun!
Then, of course, we just celebrated Christmas today! Jordan had lots of fun opening presents. It took us a couple hours to get everything opened, not because we had that many presents, but because Jordan wanted to spend time playing with each of the toys after he opened them (understandable, I suppose!) instead of opening more presents.
A little about Christmas for the Japanese:
First off, yes, they celebrate Christmas, although just the commercial part of it (Santa, reindeer, presents, etc). Less than 1% of the country is Christian (most are Shinto or Buddhist), so I doubt if many of them know the reason for the holiday (kind of like Americans celebrating Halloween even though most of us aren't pagan and have no idea what the holiday really means).
One funny thing is that it is a Japanese tradition to have KFC (yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken) for Christmas dinner! Many of them are surprised to learn that Americans don't have this tradition! The reason for KFC on Christmas started with American tourists traveling in Japan over the holidays and not being able to find turkey for their Christmas dinners (turkey really isn't a thing here). So, KFC filled the void and opened a restaurant offering fried chicken for Christmas as an alternative. Then they launched a marketing campaign offering the Japanese people a "Kentucky Christmas"! Below is a Japanese KFC Christmas commercial for your entertainment.
They sell boxes of fried chicken including cake and champagne, and people come in droves! People start ordering their boxes of KFC as early as October in order to avoid the lines on Christmas, but lines at some locations are still so long that you have to wait anywhere from 2-6 hours to get your Christmas bucket of KFC! Here's a picture! It's like going to Best Buy on Black Friday! Crazy!
Anyway, that's all for this week! We hope you all have a very merry Christmas!
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