Japanese Christmas is crazy and weird

Japanese traditional Christmas. Probably.

In Japan, Christmas is not celebrated that much since there are almost no Christians here (half a percent of the population or so). It is considered a great chance to do something fun, so it is celebrated in the way people believe Westerners celebrate Christmas. This belief is mainly based on what people have seen in Hollywood movies.

Christmas food

One common way to celebrate Christmas is to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken. In fact, KFC is so strongly connected with Christmas that you cannot eat at KFC on Christmas without booking in advance. And there are huge lines outside KFC with people who have booked.

Christmas present

An acceptable alternative to KFC is fried chicken in general, or roasted chicken. I had some roasted chicken last night, and it was good. My theory is that the thinking is Western world = U.S.A. American Christmas = turkey, turkey is a bird, chicken is also a bird, chicken = Christmas food.

My friend was dressed as "Christmas Marilyn Monroe". He had also bought an underwear set to wear underneath, but discovered that it was completely see through and decided to wear normal underwear instead. At least in the beginning.

Christmas is also celebrated as a "date night" in Japan. If you have a girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband, you should go on a date on Christmas Eve. In general, you should eat expensive Western food, mainly French or Italian food. This means it is impossible to get a table at any good French or Italian restaurant on the 24th; they are all fully booked well in advance.

Another guy, trying to hide his beard. Very ungirly shoes, though.

Marilyn Monroe had managed to find high heels almost large enough for men to wear.

Since this is a night for couples, people who are not part of a couple feel left out. Some places hold special "Christmas party for lonely people", and I went to one last year. I went to one this year too. My friend who works there was very sure that he would not be lonely anymore this year, so they would not be having such a party again, but as things turned out he is still very lonely.
When I showed up, it turned out that every other man in the place was dressed in women's clothing. I am not sure that this is a Japanese Christmas tradition, but then again I am not sure it is not. Lots of men did that last year too.

Some weird Japanese thing going on outside the bar.

Underwear inspection

Another thing that was a bit weird with this party for lonely people was that while there were a bunch of people like me drinking alone at the counter, all the girls that showed up showed up with their boyfriends... So they had obviously missed the theme of this party.

Marilyn Monroe posing outside another bar (and people passing by said: "Ah, so this is a gay bar!")

Yet another Japanese man dressed for Christmas

More people showed up later during the evening, and more people showed up wearing dresses (all men). Later, my friend who had decided not to wear the skimpy underwear on account of it being completely see through (and his dress to short not to wear non-see-through underwear) decided to wear the skimpy things anyway. And to go out and pose in front of unrelated bars looking like that. Japanese Christmas is weird, but pretty entertaining.

"Normal" underwear worn under the see through underwear.

Ghostly magic show at El Mango Christmas Party

I did a magic show at the salsa club El Mango again. I was there for Halloween, and I was there in November. As this was the third time in only three months, I was running out of new material. I can do hours and hours of table magic, but I do not do that much stage magic so my choice of magic that goes over well is more limited. I ended up doing stuff that I had never performed before for about half the show this time, which is always a bit nervous.

Apart from my magic there was also food. Lots and lots of free food. Very nice food.

Winner of the costume competition

There was a guy wearing a shirt that said 下ネタ王子 ("the prince of dirty talk") who was presented to me as "here is a guy who just like you wears clothes that normal people would never wear". The girl in the angel outfit came second in the costume competition.

There was also a costume competition. I was asked to show up in costume and decided to use my wig from Halloween with my ghost costume from O-Bon. My costume was popular, but I did not win any prize. They mentioned the three top costumes in the competition, but mine was not among them. All the top three candidates were girls in short skirts. Neither was the girl in a short skirt I thought looked best, though.

Stunt fighting

Break dance

More break dance

Rock band

People almost storming the stage during the band's performance

There were also lots of other performances. The stunt fighting group One-Ones was there, a rock band was there, and a break dancing group was there. They were all good.

Multiple participant janken (rock-paper-scissors) game

Rock-Paper-Scissors winner

There were some games, like a janken (rock-paper-scissors) game where the winner got a very nice present.

Passing presents in a ring

I first got something that looked like a PET bottle with tea, but the game started again and I passed this along

There was also "present exchange". This is common in Japanese Christmas parties. Everyone brings a gift, and you stand in a ring passing your gift to the person next to you, and receiving a gift from the person on the other side of you. After some time, this procedure ends and you get to keep whatever gift you are holding at that time.

I finally got Swedish marshmallows

This was the present that I brought

I received a bag of Swedish marshmallows. This is quite unexpected considering this is Japan. Two of my Swedish friends who were here visiting Sapporo also came to the party and I ended up with one of the presents they had brought.

Another magic show at El Mango

Right before I got on stage

At Halloween I did a magic show at a place called El Mango. I was also asked to do another show there at the Christmas party. Then suddenly I was asked if I could also come to a November party they were having, since another performance group had had to cancel. I said sure.

Blind guitar player and not blind shamisen player

Dancing

Stunt action

Rock band

This time there was a band playing, that were very good. There was also a duo where one guy was blind and played the guitar, and the other guy was not blind and played the shamisen. They were great. The blind guy had a great singing voice too. There was also a dance group dancing some modern sexy hiphop dance, and one of the members had performed at the Halloween party too. The guys working as MCs were also at the Halloween party, where they did a short stunt action (fighting) performance. They did a short performance this time too.

Oil massage

There were also a number of small booths or tables with other things going on all the time. You could get a caricature of yourself, a healthy oil rub of some kind, buy hand made hats or lamps, and much more. There was also food. It was a nice party.

At the Halloween party some people were in funny costumes, but this was not a costume party. I did see one of my friends at the party, and she was wearing stockings that became a picture of the Sapporo TV tower, though. And the stunt action group were selling t-shirts with their own logo. which may qualify as weird clothes. Maybe I need a logo too?