Christmas in Tokyo

It's about the same as in the States. The spirit of Christmas is buy, buy, and buy. The non-religious aspect does not bother me at all, as I am agnostic, but I hate going anywhere near a department store. It certainly reminds me of all I disliked about Christmas in the U.S.

I am nostalgic for an American Christmas, though. I would at least like the chance of a white Christmas, and the opportunity to see my family. I miss Christmas music. Even though I can get CDs here, and hear it in department stores, I miss the more traditional stuff. The Beach Boys singing a Christmas carol on a CD at Starbucks, makes me want to run out the door. (Well, the Beach Boys singing anything has that effect on me. Of course, if I get REALLY desperate, I could turn on the military station---810 AM which used to be called FEN, but is now PIGEON or something to do with birds. It has some of the worst music one could listen to, but it is actually stuff popular in some parts of the U.S. Especially bad are the new country music versions of Christmas songs.

Basically, Christmas here consists of buying a Christmas cake. Most taste like they were made by the millions of chemicals with flavor spray added.
A lot of young people use it as more or less a lover's holiday and spend Christmas Eve in a hotel.

The real holiday season starts next Wednesday. The New Years holidays last until about January 3-4. Tokyo is almost deserted as people return to their home towns. It is nice then as the air is clean and one can actually ride a train safely and comfortably.