Hello everyone! It’s starting to get colder so I hope you are staying warm. I’m really excited about winter! Even though I don’t like feeling super cold, I love to be cozy during the winter season. Big blankets and sweaters, warm drinks, and maybe SNOW! I noticed that some of the mountains around Ogaki had some snow on them this weekend. Coming from a place that doesn’t have much snow, I love seeing this!

Hope you’re getting ready for winter too! See you in class!

多くの中学校や高校で定期テストの時期なのではないでしょうか。

そしてテストと同じ時期ですが今年度最後の英検の申し込みも始まっています。

機会があれば、どんどん英検も受けてみてはどうでしょうか。

Autumn has many autumnal flavors we are all obliged to indulge in. Pumpkin. Pumpkin spice. Gingerbread (which is just pumpkin spice but more ginger). (Also, the association between pumpkin and pumpkin spice is so strong that people think they’re the same thing.)

Okay, maybe there aren’t very many flavors after all.

But I do enjoy that one flavor that we have! And since I can’t import my usual canned pumpkin due to supply chain issues, I’ll have to make due with pumpkin spice with extra ginger–also known as gingerbread.

This is why I made gingerbread men this month. 1) They’re nostalgic. Not because my family habitually makes gingerbread men–absolutely not! We are a lazy drop cookie family. Gingerbread men are a cutout cookie and much more fussy as a result. But before I moved to Japan, I’d discovered a pumpkin gingerbread cookie recipe that I adored and still adore. I can’t do the pumpkin version thanks to the aforementioned supply chain issues, but I can do the gingerbread half of that equation! Thus fulfilling my nostalgic itch. 2) They’re pumpkin spice but with extra ginger. I’m American. I am addicted to this spice. Enough said. 3) They’re delicious. Can’t go wrong with pumpkin spice on that front. And 4) they’re gingerbread men, which means I can bite their heads off. This is the only appropriate way to eat a gingerbread man, after all.

This poor gingerbread man was named Jeremy. He was delicious.

 Why Does Japan Associate Christmas With KFC?

Have you ever wondered how Japanese people celebrate Christmas? After all, Christmas is not a national holiday, and less than once percent of the population are Christians. Nevertheless, Christmas has had a huge impact in Japan with a big exception when compared to other countries that celebrate this holiday: there is absolutely no religion attached to the concept. As a result, Christmas has become a festive time of the year where Japanese people can go shopping, exchange gifts, enjoy Christmas lights and decorations, and have elegant dinners at luxurious restaurants without ever thinking of the religious aspects behind the holiday.

Christmas in Japan is a whole different concept, there is a tradition that many people overseas would find crazy and it concerns Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC):

Over the past years, one of the many Christmas customs that can be found in Japan is celebrating the holiday with a huge bucket of KFC. Every winter, around the 23rd of December, Colonel Sanders will appear dressed up as Santa Claus, drawing enormous crowds thanks to the so called Party Barrel offer. Party Barrel being, of course, Japan’s version of the KFC Bucket.

As a result, KFC’s sales in December tend to be twice as high as those of other months. Unlucky customers who opted to buy one of these KFC buckets on December 24 at big locations, such as the ones in Shinjuku, can end up waiting two hours for their Christmas fried chicken.

People are willing to wait two hours  for Kentucky Fried Chicken. That’s a level of commitment to this tradition that anyone outside Japan would find absolutely astonishing. KFC is a fast food chain, and fast food chains usually do not get this kind of attention unless they are the first ones to open in a specific market, creating a quick craze that eventually fades and dies.

Stay tuned for Part 2! Thank you for reading my blog.

オーストラリアでは６月にCrazy Hair Dayというものがあるそうです。

難病のための寄付金集めのためのイベントで、その病気の理解を深め、

ドネーションを募るのが目的です。

昨年は、６００校近くの学校が参加。当日はみんなCrazyな髪型で

登場！ヘアスプレーや、編み込み、カチューシャ、風船などでヘアースタイルを

決めて、ゴールドコイン１ドルか２ドルを持参。

中にはコーラの缶を付けた人もいて・・・

ちょっと楽しそうですね。みんななら、どんな髪型にしたいですか？？

深刻なことも楽しいことから入り、興味を持って、世の中の人のためになる

活動をする、そんな国民性がすてきだなあ、と思いました。

日本もそんな風になるといいですね。

考えてばかりでは、時が過ぎるばかり。

行動は大切です。