Hey! Shanelle here! Christmas is such a magical time of year, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s a time to come together with friends and family and celebrate being with one another! I truly enjoy this type of Christmas; however, I realized after coming to Japan, this is not the only type of Christmas. What I mean by this is that Japanese society has a different view on Christmas and the winter holidays than we do here. I have learned that in Japan Christmastime is seen as a couple\u2019s holiday rather than a holiday spent with family. Around this time, everyone is paired off in couples, and those who aren\u2019t are trying to find themselves a partner. Many of the Japanese people I talked to also emphasized this idea of Christmas as a couples\u2019 holiday \u2013 some even displaying their sadness of having to spend the holidays with their friends instead of a partner. It seems that they believe that if they don\u2019t have a partner during this holiday season, they feel they can\u2019t fully enjoy it.<\/p>\n
Coming from a culture that values this holiday as a time to spend with family, this kind of Christmas was a little difficult to understand. Why exactly is Japanese society is obsessed with the notion of a \u201ccouple\u2019s Christmas\u201d? It seems that for some reason, Japan has created this ideal that being a couple during the winter season leads to happiness, and the media and businesses have taken full advantage of that. During this time, there are many events that are designed with couples in mind. For instance, many cities hold their own illumination festival, which is when they light up certain areas with Christmas lights. I have gone to see quite a few, and they are truly amazing spectacles to witness! Very beautiful! However, it is evident that these kinds of events are chartered for couples. Couple key straps, couple accessories, and just couples everywhere \u2013 anywhere you turn, there\u2019s a couple taking a cute selfie of themselves with the lights.<\/p>\n
This emphasis on couples during this time, while different, is not a bad thing. I personally enjoy being with my family during the winter holidays; however, I\u2019m glad I was able to experience another culture\u2019s kind of Christmas. As long as you spend it with people you love, Christmas will always be a joyous time! I hope everyone has a wonderful winter holiday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey! Shanelle here! Christmas is such a magical time of year, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s a time to come together with friends and family and celebrate being with one another! I truly enjoy this type of Christmas; however, I realized after coming to Japan, this is not the only type of Christmas. What I mean by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":510,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kansai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/510"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14179,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10442\/revisions\/14179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}