Hello everyone and welcome to my weekly Video.
As you may can hear from my voice, I am still having a cold.
I am coughing for over one week now and my voice also is struggling with this.
Today it is a little bit better. I hope my voice is staying until the end of the video.
We will see if it is working. But I should better start now
before I talk too much and my voice is already gone again.
Christmas is already over, but I still want to make an After-Christmas-Video,
because before Christmas I can't tell you how we spent our Christmas time.
That's why today, on the Friday after Christmas, there is a "How we spent Christmas in Japan" video from me.
On my blog there is a small article, too. Feel free to take a look there.
There are some more topics inside which I will not talk about in this video.
So when you are interested, take a look there.
I splitted this video in five points which I will show you here first,
so you already get an impression what this video will be about. Tada~
And now I would say, I simply should start.
First is the topic: Holidays for Christmas in Japan.
Because this is quite different to what we know from Germany.
In Germany we have two public holidays, and let's say a half. So two and a half.
So Christmas Eve and the two Christmas Holidays.
In Japan there are no holidays.
Luckily until now the emperor's birthday was celebrated on 23rd December
and such as this year when the birthday was on a Sunday and in Japan we have the rule
that public holidays which are on a Sunday bring a day off on Monday.
That means, we were lucky this year and 24th December was a public holiday
and we had a long weekend.
December 25th and 26th are totally normal working days in Japan.
I actually also had to work on 25th, but with my current voice at a kindergarten
where I have to speak in a loud and strong voice the whole day and sing and dance - this was not possible.
It is already exhausting to simply speak for 1~2 hours, which it is probably taking today,
to finish up this video. This is already hurting my voice.
From the coming year the tenno is going to resign and we will get a new emperor
and because of this the Emperor's birthday is also going to change.
I still have the minimal hope that the 23rd is going to be a public holiday
that they are leave it or do anything else, but officially December 23rd won't be a public holiday anymore
and so there won't be any public holiday around Christmas next year.
That means 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th - it will be a completely normaly week in Japan
and I guess so even more of the Christmas feeling is going to be lost.
Question Number 2: Who do you celebrate Christmas with in Japan?
In Germany it is a huge family festival when everyone comes together and eats a lot.
In Japan Christmas is rather a festival for couples, because on Christmas Eve
or on December 23th as we are always doing it, you spend time with your loved ones
and go out for a nice dinner and have a wonderful date.
Nowadays, also families with children are celebrating Christmas,
but it is still not so common. Especially for the older generation.
Christmas is still the festival for couples and not a huge family festival.
This is going to be at New Year.
Question Number 3: What do you eat for Christmas in Japan?
From Germany you know about roast goose on the Christmas holidays
and sausages and potato salad on Christmas Eve.
This is different in Japan. Here, for many Japanese people, KFC is on the top ranks.
I am not a fan of it, that is why I have never been to KFC for Christmas.
But KFC had a great advertisment several years ago and this is still in the head of many Japanese
and so they are simply running to Kentucky Fried Chicken and buy their chicken there.
They even sell some special boxes with limited Christmas specials there.
My husband is also a fan of chicken and wanted to go to KFC,
but we don't have a shop close to our home.
At the end he bought chicken at the supermarket, which is also delicious and fitting,
because supermarkets are also joining the hype
and are offering chicken and more for Christmas.
For me, the Christmas Cakes are more important,
because I have a sweet tooth and totally love sweets.
Traditionally Christmas cakes are creme cakes with strawberries - the popular Strawberry Short Cake.
And this one is decorated nicely for Christmas.
Within the years this for sure evolved and now there a many cakes
you can choose from for Christmas. Whether chocolate cake or anything else.
The choice is really huge.
We have been out a bit on 3th and around the shopping streets you could see
how many cakes were offered. You could see all the choices and this was really interesting.
Which cake we had this year, you will get to know at point 5 of this video.
We also got a bit away from the usual cakes
and ordered a really special Christmas cake.
Let's come to point number 4!
How does it look like during Christmas season?
This is there we come a bit closer to German, because everythere you can see sparkling and blinking.
Illuminations are very popular during the whole winter and you can find them nearly everywhere.
There are even some only for Christmas, which means they are already over now.
But there are many illuminations lasting until the middle or end of February, too.
So if you are coming to Japan soon, you still can see the beautiful sea of lights.
For sure you also can find Christmas trees at many places which are sometimes decorated interestingly.
We just have been to Sanrio Puroland and there they had Christmas trees with Hello Kitty and Cinamoroll.
Those were very cute though.
But for sure also at the supermarkets and shopping streets ou can find a lot of decorations
because Christmas is and stays the main time of commerce.
People go shopping. They buy Christmas presents. Everyone spends a lot of money.
And for sure every wants to join in.
Even sausage packages or choco packages are changed into Christmas style.
This year I even saw egg packages with Santa Claus on it.
Nearly everything is made Christmassy
even though the background of the Christmas story is rather unknown for most of the Japanese people.
Because there are not many Christs here and Christmas mainly is about
the tall big man in his red and white clothes bringing presents to children.
So, Christmas is quite different. I especially like all the illuminations here.
And they also have some Christmas Markets which you can visit.
Unfortunately I only could visit a small one this year.
When I went to a concert at Saitama Super Arena, there was a small Christmas Market in front of it
and I took a short look around and treated myself to a Bretzel.
Apart from that I didn't have enough time.
We have been at Christmas Markets in Japan for several times and I would say my top 3 are:
the Christmas Market at Akarenga in Yokohama, the Tokyo Christmas Market at Hibiya Park
and I also liked the Christmas Market in Osaka under the Umeda Sky Building.
So when you are in Japan around Christmas, take a look there.
There are a lot more Christmas Markets you could visit.
They are a lot more expensive than the German ones, but it really is an interesting opportunity
and at least you can get a bit Christmas feeling in Japan with this.
Let's come to point Number 5 on my list: How did we spent out Christmas in Japan this year?
Because I am sick, we nearly erased everyting I had on my list.
I was actually thinking about going to Christas Market and seeing some illuminations,
but I was coughing about every 2-3 minutes and it was really annoying.
That's why we spent nearly all of our Christmas at home on the couch.
On 23th December we had a reservation at Schmatz in the evening.
This is a German-inspired restaurant chain which already has some shops around the wider Tokyo area.
And we went to the one in Kichijoji. Before this I stopped by the German bakery to buy some bread
so I could at least have a little traditional German breakfast the next two days.
We also went shopping at the Rilakkuma Store where we spent a bit too much money.
And then we had our German-inspired dinner.
I had a Schnitzel with cheese and French fries with cheese sauce.
My husband ordered the pasta of the day and we had a nice evening there.
December 24th we spent really easy going.
We didn't had any plans. I was staying at home the whole day.
I was even wearing my pyjama the whole day, because no one was going to see me anyway.
We ordered pizza for the evening which we had for dinner then
and as dessert we had the highlight: our Christmas Cake!
Same as last year we ordered a Rilakkuma cake.
Last year we had a creme roll, this year we had an even more special cake.
It had two layers.
On top there was some kind of cheesecake and under this there was a strawberry creme cake.
The cake was quite huge for us and so it took us 3-4 days to eat it after dinner.
But it was really very delicious
and I am already excited what kind of cake we are going to have next year.
I then had a discussion with my husband about when to do the gift giving.
Because for sure he was knowing the American - English version
of opening the presents on the morning of December 25th.
I was staying with my family traditions
that gift giving is after dinner on 24th.
So, that means we were giving us our Christmas presents then.
This year it was not a big surprise, because we told us earlier what we would like to have.
I, for example, wanted a scarf from Rilakkuma, which was a bit to expensive for me,
so it was nicely fitting as a Christmas present.
Furthermore, I was hunting a Rilakkuma hat which was suddenly sold out at all shops
and my husband tried to get it secretly somewhere online.
However, he told me about it when he made it.
This is the lovely hat I was talking about - with the two ears.
It is really super cute and super soft and super warm. I am really happy that I got it.
For my husband I already bought the Christmas present during our trip to Kyoto.
He got a Rilakkuma necktie which he is going to wear from time to time now.
I am excited how it will look like, because he didn't wear it so far.
But I think this is going to happen soon.
And because my husband is a huge fan of Umaibo he got a big bag of Umaibo.
It is filled with small umaibo sticks and now he can enjoy eating them.
There are different tastes inside and I hope he is going to have fun with it.
We received amazing presents from Germany this year, too.
I want to say thank you for this one more time.
When the 10 kilo packet arrived the other it was simply wow!
I opened it together with my husband and we both were totally speechless.
Thank you so much to the lovely people who sent us all the presents.
We are totally happy about it and for sure we are going to return the favor.
I think I have now said everything I wanted to tell you about. I hope I didn't forget anything.
As I said, there is an article on my blog there I wrote about
how we spent our Christmas this year. Take a look there.
Because here I am only about the two Christmas days which we celebrated,
and my article is about the whole December - how I tried to make it a bit more Christmassy
This year is going to be over in 3 days and so this is my last video I am going to upload this year.
For sure, I hope you enjoyed it
and even ore that you had fun with all my videos I uploaded during this year.
I wanted to work more on my YouTube channel this year
and wanted to upload a video once a week.
I finally started to get into the rhythm even though it is still a lot of work to do every time.
The current plan is one new video every Friday. So please take a look here once a month.
This would make me really happy.
Also if you didn't subscribe to my channel now, please subscribe to it now
and turn on the red bell to get an information when a new video is online.
I wish you a all a great start into the new year.
In the first week I am planing to upload two videos.
When everything goes well, one video comes on January 2nd and one video on January 4th
and the topic certainly will be Fukubukuro, the lucky bags which are coming out for New Year.
One video I luckily already could finish.
This one will be together with my husband, which also will be a premiere on my channel.
And I hope the other video will work out well, too.
Please also stay with me in 2019. That would make me really happy.
For the end of this video, why don't you tell me how you spent your Christmas days,
what was your favorite present
and also what kind of videos would you like to see in 2019 from me.
I am open for your suggestions and try to make what I can for you.
And so I simply say Goodbye and hope to see you again next year. Bye bye! (^w^)~
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