[Music]
ah
christmas my favorite time of year there
we go
perfect we all love it for different
reasons family
food jesus as for me i like it because
of the presence to get the presents that
i so sorely deserve
i like to mope beneath the christmas
tree the night before christmas and
guess what's inside
each and every box this year though my
christmas eve was rather stressful when
i opened my phone to reveal some
some pretty worrying news instead of
getting a jovial man
burst down my chimney i received a news
alert informing me that my beloved
bathmat that i've been using every day
for two years now
is actually filled with asbestos the
toxic
fiber known to cause lung cancer
asbestos heavy bath mat
yeah on the second day of christmas my
true love gave to me
a bathmat filled with asbestos and a
partridge in a pear tree
doesn't really work does it doesn't
really fit the sort of upbeat christmas
narrative yes rather embarrassingly it
turns out one of japan's biggest
retailers
sold 2.4 million items manufactured in a
dodgy factory in china where they tried
to cut costs
by stuffing various household items full
of asbestos
and if you know the correct way to
dispose of asbestos please leave a
comment below help because
i don't really know what to do i mean i
could do in a brawl in japan christmas
giveaway
could be rather good no actually it's
probably not a good idea
but to be fair in a year where
absolutely everything went wrong it
seemed like a fitting
end to the year seemed like a fitting
end to 2020
to get a visit from the ghost of
christmas asbestos
now for the past eight years that i've
lived in japan um i've actually only
been here
for three christmases typically i flee
to the uk to stuff myself full of
mulled wine and cheese but with
everything going on in the world i
couldn't do that this year and there are
many reasons that i avoid christmas in
japan like a lot of foreign residents
that i know
living here so in this video i thought
i'd answer some key questions
number one what's it like to have
christmas in japan number two
why do i avoid it and number three why
do i recommend not visiting the country
between
late december and early january for some
pretty big reasons which i'll get into
in a minute but before that you might be
wondering what father christmas did
actually bring me this year in between
bath mats filled with cancer and i did
actually receive some pretty amazing
things and some
not so amazing things as well but we'll
start with the good stuff and
my first thing is this cd projekt red
the makers of cyberpunk 2077 uh send me
a collector's edition of the game in
this gigantic box because it turns out
some of the team at cd projekt red
actually watch abroad in japan how
awesome is that and i look forward to
playing that
on my imaginary playstation 5 when it
arrives sometime in the next 10 years
because right now not even god
can get a hold of a playstation 5. i do
have a playstation 4 but
i want to wait until the glitches and
performance issues have been ironed out
so i could play it the way
it was meant to be played so thank you
to cd projekt red for my
favorite christmas present the second
present well it couldn't be any more
different
you might be aware that here on the
abroad japan channel we've tried and
failed
miserably to uh get ken watanabe japan's
number one actor
to feature on the show for some years
now fantastic actor you might have seen
him in
inception godzilla or the last samurai
however my pursuit of him has been so
ruthless so
obsessive and disturbing that i suspect
any chances of ever getting him on the
show are
pretty much gone by now unfortunately
this christmas an incredible viewer sent
the next best thing
uh which is of course [ __ ] up a
life-size
cardboard cutout of the man himself
there he is ken watanabe in the flesh
in the cardboard and i look forward to
finding a use for ken sometime in 2021
most likely to uh
scare children right let's just put him
over here in the background
good old ken there you go actually it
looks really
looks really quite disturbing let's just
not do that you can go
over there ken right present number
three we're now going into
not so good present territory i think
that might be an understatement
this is white musk uh air freshener it
has this rather troubling english on the
front that says
uh john's blend hang it in a closet a
bedroom entrance
doorknob etc john's proud aroma will
spread
in your room john's proud aroma will
spread in your room what a disgrace who
is john why is he so proud
of his aroma what does it actually smell
like
oh god [ __ ] it smells like
cigarettes apples and despair
i don't know what john was thinking i
don't know why he's proud of that and
finally firmly at the bottom of my list
quite comfortably is this pen shaped
like a carrot
might just be the worst christmas
present of all time from a now
former friend and it says here in big
letters fresh veggie pen
these look so real veggies
these look so real veggies but they are
pens the veggie pen would be
a very fun gift item would it it's hard
to imagine why someone felt this was an
appropriate gift item an item
so unimaginably [ __ ] that it's
practically begging for somebody to buy
as a gift um there you go a carrot like
a pen
clearly no expense spared there i'm
starting to think the asbestos bath map
would make
a better gift than this
so how does japan celebrate christmas
does it celebrate christmas
at all well even though roughly one
percent of japan's population
claims to be christian and december 25th
is not a public holiday the christmas
season does still
exist in a rather bastardized
commercialized form
in fact on the surface it almost looks
like christmas back home in europe or
north america you've got
the decorations the music the christmas
trees the kfc bucket
all right maybe not everything but
interestingly christmas in japan starts
a month earlier than back home it kicks
off
on november 1st when all the decorations
go up christmas trees candles
crap covers of last christmas you can
enjoy all that from november 1st
but even though the christmas season
starts a whole month earlier than it
does back home
it also ends early as well rather
bizarrely it ends on december 26th
almost overnight all the decorations
and every sign of christmas is removed
it's taken down the end result is
christmas in japan captures that
excitement in the right to christmas day
but then boxing day just feels rather
hollow and empty
it's a bit like having a three-course
meal but as you're about to dive into
dessert
someone chucks a rock at it and [ __ ] it
all up but you know what for any
criticism i may have of
christmas in japan i'm still grateful to
have it in some form because you are
able to get in the festive spirit
despite it being a purely commercial
holiday uh where the origins of
christianity and the nativity are all
stripped away after all jesus never
really made it to japan
well that is unless you believe the
people of shingle village in aomori
prefecture where they believe jesus
was quite literally laid to rest no i'm
not making it up tucked away in the
mountains of north japan there's a tomb
with a cross
and even an impressive stone tablet
written in hebrew to commemorate the
real resting place of jesus
as well as an in-depth story of how and
why jesus made this
surprising journey honestly it's either
the most compelling conspiracy
in the history of christianity or it's a
shitty pr stunt that went
a little bit too far uh and i'm inclined
to believe it's the latter but i'm not
here to judge
you decide in the comments below uh all
i know is when i covered it in a video a
few years ago an australian newspaper
referred to me as an alternate theorist
which is a title
i never knew i wanted but in the absence
of jesus the closest thing japan has to
a divine spiritual figurehead
for the festive season is an individual
of great power
and great wisdom and i am of course
talking about colonel sanders
and for once i'm really not exaggerating
when december 25th rolls around
colonel sanders is essentially jesus
christ and father christmas
rolled into one when 3.6 million
japanese families sit down
to eat a kfc christmas dinner which
perhaps unsurprisingly
is exactly what i did this christmas
[Music]
the kfc christmas menu is a big deal for
kfc said to make up
a third of kfc japan's yearly sales
which is completely believable given
you need to reserve it almost a month in
advance in order
to secure the premium christmas menu the
festive tradition kicked off in 1974
when a kfc manager
allegedly heard an expat claim that
chicken was the next best option after
turkey
a meat which isn't commonly sold in
japan kfc marketed their chicken party
bucket as a delicious alternative with
the slogan kentucky
christmas literally kentucky is
christmas
the luxurious feast doesn't come cheap
though at around four thousand yen about
forty dollars
though you do get a lot of bang for your
buck including a party box packed
with eight pieces of chicken a triple
berry tiramisu
and a shrimp gratin thrown in for extra
measure for the real big spenders you
can even snag
an entire premium roast chicken which
costs a whopping
5 600 yen about 56 but seeing as natsuki
isn't a big spender this year we did
without it's such a weird
like array of dishes and food kfc
chicken
a christmas cake and a gratin all laird
under what's going on do you want it
merry christmas merry christmas
so happy christmas
grace is over cold
been over
maybe oh we're not quite that scared for
today
while i'll admit the kfc christmas menu
is no match for a full-blown christmas
dinner
it's still a fun way to celebrate the
christmas season i'm sure
colonel sanders would be proud and
undeniably surprised
to see how his finger-licking good food
has somehow become a beloved
japanese tradition
so the main reason i avoid christmas in
japan is
i always think back to my first
christmas that i spent here
back when i was an english teacher
working at a senior high school or be
an empty senior high school because on
christmas day in japan there are no
students they've all gone home for the
holiday season however because christmas
isn't a national holiday in japan
i still had to go into work i sat at my
desk and did nothing
all day on christmas worse still the
entire staff room
was empty i worked with 120 teachers now
those 120 teachers
only about four of them actually stayed
around and did something while the rest
took their annual leave in the run-up to
the new year's holiday
so what that meant was i was sitting in
a staff room alone
just sort of doing doing nothing on
christmas day i was very stubborn i
didn't want to use my
few days of holiday leave i wanted to
cling on to it like the final hand
grenade
for a special occasion after wasting the
day away at my desk i trudged
through the afternoon blizzard and i
just i remember i fell over in some snow
and that was that was a real low point i
remember laying there
in a pile of snow frozen to death while
my phone was bombarded with messages
from friends and family around the world
eating turkey
having fun opening presents
i cursed the day that i stayed in japan
for christmas
and did nothing
[Music]
to be fair i only had myself to blame
most of my uh foreign colleagues had
either gone home for christmas or going
skiing for the week
uh i was just a little bit stupid you
know the absence of family and friends
and a good christmas dinner is one thing
but
there's all the other things you take
for granted at christmas you know
sitting down to
watch tv watch another remake of a
christmas carol or a rerun of die hard
or
sitting in a pub with a glass of mulled
wine all those things it took moving to
japan to make me realize that there was
far more to christmas than just
christmas day itself and while my
favorite bit of christmas is actually
those relaxing days in between
christmas and new years where you can
sit down and play with your train set
and open your buzz lightyear toy
meanwhile in japan though far from being
relaxing
in those days after christmas the whole
country suddenly gets very busy
and chaotic and turns into a nightmare
[Music]
there are a few things scarier than
going to an atm and discovering
that it doesn't dispense any cash
especially in a country where cash is
king
and credit cards still don't often work
but that is exactly what happens over
the new year's holiday
in japan where families across the
country enjoy a rare get-together
and for a short time the country shuts
down during new year's families in japan
descend on temples and shrines to pray
for good luck in an event called
hatsumode literally
the first shrine visit and if you're
into that aspect of japanese culture it
can be a rewarding experience to visit
the country and take part and pray for
your own good luck
but if not i would genuinely advise you
not to visit the country between
december 25th
and january 5th because traveling is
anything but fun
whether it's queuing outside one of the
few restaurants that are still open
standing for two hours on an overcrowded
shinkansen
or wondering how you're gonna pay for it
all because the atms don't work
between december 29th and january 3rd
and for the three years that i've been
in japan for new year's
i've forgotten this every single time
and had to beg for money
from my unamused friends i mean this
time this year again i have forgotten
and i've got
uh five i've got about a thousand one
thousand
and eleven yen which is enough to buy
like four kitkats um for the next few
days still if the worst comes to the
worst i could always pawn off
some items i think there's enough here
to maybe buy me
maybe four or five breadcrumbs so there
you have it christmas in japan
it's not really that bad is it and i
mean the kfc christmas bucket while it's
no substitute for a real christmas
dinner
and as long as father christmas doesn't
bring you a carcinogenic bathmat
japan is still one of the better
non-christian countries to be in
if you want to get in the christmas
spirit you know what 2020
not a great year but we still do get to
do some amazing things here and i wanted
to end this video with a montage of some
of the highlights and best moments from
2020 here on the everyone japan channel
but for now guys as always for more
behind the scenes videos check out the
abroad japan patreon in the description
box below
and on behalf of myself natsuki ryotaro
p donaldson from the podcast
and now ken watanabe himself i'd like to
wish you all
a very merry christmas and a happy new
year
roll the tape welcome to my house
[Music]
this is
right that's not a green screen if i can
reach out i can touch it i can touch it
oh thank god please please shut up
oh my god this is like a first person
horror game
that i don't want to be in you think
you're better than me will you go for it
you can't
[ __ ] hot sauce
[Music]
muffins and crumpets yes and scones
bye