There we go.

Perfect.

Mhm.

We all have it for different reasons.

Family food, jesus as for me, I like it because of the presence to get the presence that I so sorely deserved.

I like to move 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 open my phone to reveal some, it's a 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.

That asbestos heavy bath mat.

Yeah, on the second day of christmas, my true love gave to me a bath mat 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.

Come in.

I could do it abroad 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, it 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, I've actually only been here for three christmases.

Typically I flee to the UK to stuff myself full of mold 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 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 project Red, the makers of cyberpunk 2077 semi collector's edition of the game in this gigantic box because it turns out some of the team at CD Project Red actually watch abroad in Japan, how awesome is that and I look forward to playing that on my imaginary Playstation five when it arrives sometime in the next 10 years because right now, not even God can get a hold of a Playstation five, I do have a Playstation four, but I want to wait until the glitches and performance issues have been ironed out so I can play it the way it was meant to be played.

So thank you to CD Project 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 bridge in Japan channel, we've tried and failed miserably to 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, but 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, Which is of course fuckinup a life size cardboard cut out 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 scare Children.

Right, let's just put him over here in the background, good old kim.

There you go actually, it looks really looks really quite disturbing, let's just not do that, you go over there.

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 air freshener, has this rather troubling english on the front that says john's blend hanging in a closet, a bedroom entrance, door knob, etcetera.

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 wasn't 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, big letters, fresh veggie pen.

These look so real veggies, fuckinup!

These look so real veggies, but they appends 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 shit that it's practically begging for somebody to buy it as a gift.

There you go.

A carrot like a pen.

Clearly no expense spared there.

I'm starting to think the asbestos, bathmat would make a better gift than this.

So how does Japan celebrate Christmas, does it celebrate Christmas at all?

Well, even though roughly 1% of Japan's population claims to be Christian and December 25 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 and Japan starts a month earlier than back home.

It kicks off on November one when all the decorations go up, Christmas trees, candles, crap covers of last Christmas, you can enjoy all that from November one.

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 run up 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 rocket it and fox 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 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 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 and I'm inclined to believe it's the latter, but I'm not here to judge you decide in the comments palay, 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 with 3.6 million Japanese families sit down to eat a KFC christmas dinner, which perhaps unsurprisingly is exactly what I did this christmas, 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 The 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 Bar Christmas, literally Kentucky is Christmas, the luxurious feast doesn't come cheap though and around 4000 yen, about $40.

But 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 could even snag an entire premium roast chicken which costs a whopping 5600 yen, about $56.

But seeing as Nowitzki isn't a big spender this year we did without, it's such a weird like array of dishes and food like KFC chicken, a christmas cake and a great um, all lads under what's going on, do you want it, merry christmas, merry christmas.

So happy christmas and then in any other happy, yeah, we hope you've been a good one without any, without any years wise over Greece is over cold bit over, maybe we'll not quite, that's 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.

Yeah, so the main reason I avoid christmas in Japan is I wasted back to my first christmas that I spent here back when I was an english teacher working at a senior high school, albeit 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, we're 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 the staff room alone, just sort of doing doing nothing on christmas day, I was very stubborn.

I don't want to use my a few days of holiday leave, 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 remember I fell over in some smoke 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 in Turkey, having fun, opening presents.

Yeah, I curse the day that I stayed in Japan for christmas and did nothing, ha ha to be fair, I only have myself to blame.

Most of my foreign colleagues had either gone home for christmas or going skiing for the week.

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.

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 had some more deer, literally that first try and 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 five 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 years.

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 I've got about 1000 1000 and 11.

Um, which is enough to buy like four kick cats 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 today.

You have it christmas in Japan, It's not really that bad is it?

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 did 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, there's always for more behind the scenes videos, check out the abroad in Japan Patreon in the description box below and on behalf of myself, Nowitzki, Ryutaro Pete 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.

Well, come to my heart.

All right, that's not a green screen.

I can reach out.

I can't touch it.

Can't touch it.

Why?

Yeah, thank you.

Please please everyone Shut up.

Oh my God.

It's like a first person horror game, but I don't want to be in.

You think you're telling me where you got your eyes off?

Stop the game fucking hot sauce.

Mhm.

Muscle explanation, muffins and crumpets.

Yes.

And scorns.

Yeah.

Come by, cheers.

Oh, by Nowitzki back.