What is Christmas for Japanese?

It is already December now.
So Christmas is coming soon.

For Japanese, what is Christmas?
As you know, a greater majority are buddhists. So we don't celebrate the days of christians.
So, Christmas is just one of the event of the year.
We don't have holiday for this day.
We have a party after work or school, with friends, lovers, and colleagues at work.
They change presets for each other and eat" Christmas cakes" which are not so special; just put soma candies shaping Santa claus, or reindeers.

In the cities, or many shoppes, restaurants, they decorate, christmas trees, lights, and so on.
We can also have " Special menu" in the restaurants or coffee shops.
Also, there is a lot of events, goods to enjoy each christmas.

For children, of course Santa claus comes. Children prepare big sock near their beds before they go to bed. Just this day, every child is like a angel. They act so good because their parents always say to them,"If you are a bad boy/girl, Santa Claus won't come to you!!!" So from this moment, they became " Angels". They go to bed earlier then usual because if they stay awake till late, Santa Claus can't put their presents near them.

Typical christmas cake

event of christmas

Christmas party in the kindergarten 

it's time to prepare the gifts!!

Bad Words in Japanese?

There is" bad words" in Japanese??
I think no.
We have a lot of words to show our emotions but not like" F@@k you!" or so on.
We use daily words but we change the way to say.

For example, “死ね！”(Shine) means "die". It is not a bad word. But if you say this word to someone, the  person feels bad because this means " I want you to die".

Another example, ”うざい”、”うっとおしい"(uzai, uttooshii")means " annoying",
”むかつく”(mukatsuku) means "annoyed", ”バカじゃないの？”( baka jyanaino?:Tokyo dialect) /”アホちゃう？”(aho cyau?;Osaka dialect) mean " Are you stupid?".

As you can see, you don't have exactly bad words, but we change our voice and expressions.
Which is scary?? :-)

study our language! ^^
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Work over

Many people have the image, "Japanese always work without relax"
It is not the wrong idea, but also so correct neither.

Usually, people work from 9-18, 12-13 is lunch time, so we work for 8 hours.
It is the official time.

If they can't finish their work, they work over.

The problem is that many companies don't pay for it. Companies say" Don't work so much, we don't pay for this" But if they can't finish their work? " Why you couldn't finish your work? Did you try hard?" Therefore, people are afraid of being " bad worker" or " irresponsible worker". So people work hard to being" Good worker"

But every company is not like this. usually famous companies treat employees well, they pay for their overwork because the companies have also responsibilities for their employees and society.

On the other hand, small or middle level of companies usually treat employees bad. They have to work hard without paying. They work well but companies don't evaluate the capabilities of them. These companies are not famous neither, so they can control their taxes and they try to get more many to their owen. But employees can't say " You are wrong" in many cases. Why? Because they are afraid of being fired and lose their job. So they just keep working without complains. It is so sad.

Fortunately, I have never worked this kind of companies, but I have hared this kind of story from friends and family. 

It is good things to work hard, but they need to be evaluated well.

So it always depends on the companies and their jobs.
Also the society is changing too. Many young people don't want a life just for work.
So they try to find "good job" for their lives.

Autumn Leaves 紅葉

In autumn Japanese people enjoy autumn leaves, in japanese called 紅葉 (kouyou).
We usually go to Momijigari 紅葉狩り (hunting autumn leaves) hike and see colors of nature with lunch box.
This culture is started from Heian Period 平安時代, when peole went out to see red leaves and made japanese poems waka 和歌 ispired from this phenomenon and enjoied the season.
 What we love are not 'new' flowers, but their last moments, yes, we love feeling "sorrow".

From the window, we see the mountains changing colors from the summer green to red and a poetic atmosphere feels up our hearts. Many people go to admire with their families and friends this magic moment, it is one of the event in the year. If you would like to join this magic moment, some of the best places I can recommend are Kyoto 京都 and its temples, especially 清水寺 (Kiyomizudera), Nara 奈良, Nikko 日光, Hakone 箱根 and Kamakura 鎌倉, places popular for kouyou from the ancient time.

Tea culture

We love tea as you know.

In Japan, people drink tea from morning.
Many people in Japan have a breakfast with hot tea.
It makes people so relax and it's healthy.

Hot green tea is part of our life.

My father, for example, has hot tea when he gots up in the morning with watching news in TV and reading newa paper.
And with lunch, hot tea. And then, after dinner and saki, hot tea.
Of course, it depends on the person.

However, people also drink cold tea called MUGICHYA.
It is different type of tea. They usually drink it in summer. People sweat a lot in summer and lose salt.
This tea helps bodies from this bad conditions.

These days young people don't drink green tea so much.

And there are many kinds of tea from all over the world.

So young people drink other teas. 

It is little bit sad. 

We have a lot of type of green tea in Japan.

緑茶：Ryokucya: green tea
麦茶：Mugicya: Roasted barley tea
玄米茶: Genmaicha: Brown rice tea
そば茶：Sobacya:Buckwheat tea
ほうじ茶:Hojicya: Hoji tea
玉露茶: Gyokurocha: Gyokuro tea
抹茶: Maccya:Matcha

There are more. Each of them has different taste and sense.
So try many teas and find your favorite!!
Have a nice tea life!

I am a Japanese!

Hello, everyone!
I am a Japanese from Osaka.
I want to write about my country and culture and so on.
If you love my country JAPAN, please read.

I try to show you deep Japan.^^
Just introduction of my blog.