It’s a Japanese tradition to eat noodles on New Year’s Eve. Noodles are long, so they symbolize long life and family good fortune. Therefore, to Japanese people, eating noodles is like wishing people good luck. Especially soba noodle are said to be good because they are so easy to cut. People relate the breakable texture of soba to cutting off bad luck.
In Japan we celebrate Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day.
Since ancient times, the main religions in Japan have been Shinto and Buddhism, and many Japanese are not too familiar with the Christian Bible. The typical images of Christmas that we know in Japan are gifts and Santa Claus. As a result, we have developed our own Christmas traditions. We don’t celebrate Christmas Day much. Instead, we celebrate Christmas Eve with family or special friends. When we spend it with our family, chicken from KFC is THE traditional food. We usually have a cute cake with it. Anyone who has a sweetheart or “significant other” typically likes to spend Christmas Eve with that person. It’s a lot like Valentine’s Day in America. Couples may go out to an amusement park, a museum, a theater, a romantic restaurant, etc., but Japanese guys have to make plans and reservations months in advance. 😉
There is a new kind of café with an interesting concept in Japan. It is called an “Aiseki café”. Aiseki means “sharing a table” in Japanese, and in an Aiseki café customers share a table speed dating style. Every customer has to switch tables a few times every hour according to the café policy. The first one opened in June, 2015 in Kurume, Fukuoka, and another in August, 2015 in Ginza, Tokyo. There may be more, but these are what I found online. More Aiseki cafés are coming soon. There are Aiseki bars & Aiseki restaurants also.
In 1954, Toho Production Company made the first Godzilla movie, and since then Toho has made 28 more Godzilla films. As I mentioned in my Shin Godzilla post, Toho is now at work on a new Godzilla movie for summer 2016. Toho also opened the Toho Building (unofficially known as the “Godzilla Building”) in Tokyo in April, 2015. This building features a huge Godzilla and offers hotel rooms from which you can see Godzilla just outside your window. Although it has been more than 11 years since their last Godzilla movie, Toho is successfully drawing Japanese people’s attentions to Godzilla once again.
These amazing body paint art pieces are done by Chooo-san or Hikaru Cho. Some of them were done when she was only a college student 19 years old. Now she is 22 and has been on many TV shows and held many art exhibits in Japan. She says that she does not use any computer graphics, and her paintings are all done with acrylic paint only.
Parasyte is the title of a SF manga written by Hitoshi Iwaaki (岩明 均) (b. 1960) between 1988 and 1995. In this story parasites come to earth and start taking over the brains of humans. The story raises questions such as “Why do we exist?” “How should different species coexist?” “Is it right to kill other species?” and characters explore the meaning of our existence throughout the story. Although the manga version of Parasyte was very popular, the anime version was only made in 2014. It took almost 20 years because the production rights to Parasyte were bought by an American company, but they never made use of them. It took 15 years for these rights to expire. Anyway, the anime is awesome! I love it. I have watched it about 20 times. lol (There is also a live-action movie version, but personally I don’t recommend it.)
Japanese people say they have “autumn appetite.” It means that you feel hungrier in the fall than in any other season. This could be from the fact that many crops are harvested in the fall so that food is abundant then, and also the fact that people recover their appetites once the summer heat has ended and their bodies begin to prepare for the cold winter ahead. I have noticed that I have been putting up many food posts recently, but that must be quite normal for this season.
There are many Starbucks stores in Japan, and some of the items they sell are the same as the Starbucks in the U.S., but also you see different menu items. As I mentioned last month, chestnuts are very popular in Japan. (Please read Chestnuts & Mont Blanc for more details.) One item found in Japanese Starbucks at this time of year is “Roast Nutty Chestnut”, which sounds like a drinkable version of a Mont Blanc. Yummmm!
Chika 
