Helena Miljević

Believe it or not - the Japanese are really into Christmas, of course in their own, unique way - since here Christ’s birthday is exclusively a commercial and not a religious or family holiday. Thanks to American movies, according to which all kinds of romantic miracles are possible on that day, the Japanese believe that it is best to spend it with that one special person you love, so the concept is closer to our Valentine's Day. On Christmas Eve, it is mandatory to eat the “Christmas cake” that the father – the head of the family – buys on his way home from work. Although these cakes are quite small by our standards, their prices do not exactly align with their dimensions, so if you want to treat yourself on the cheap, you have to wait for Christmas Day, when their prices plummet to sell them off as quickly as possible. Christmas cakes are so popular that this term is also associated with girls who (like cakes) are desirable until the age of 25, and after that they need big discounts to sell or get married! Along with the image of Santa Claus created by Coca-Cola in its ad campaigns, the Japanese also associate Christmas with Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders! Buying your Christmas dinner in this famous American fast food chain is de rigueur. And you must reserve your meal in advance! To each their own. I, for one, gave fried chicken a pass! Instead of buying chicken, in our dorm we organized an international Christmas Eve dinner, where everyone brought a dish from their country. We didn't stay up late because on Christmas morning our schedule included mass and the unforgettable "holiday spirit" of the Roppongi Hills shopping mall. In addition to a shopping area, restaurants and a cinema, the mall also boasts a splendid garden, an impressive library, a museum and a gallery, and over its entrance there looms a huge spider (of consumerism) whose web is hard to escape from, not that we tried.