Christmas is an interesting time over here in Japan.

Supermarkets, department stores, and local stores have the Christmas decorations out with the trees and jiggling Santa statues but there isn't any noticeable difference busyness. In terms of business, it's pretty much like any other day.

The food. For some reason, Kentucky Fried Chicken makes a killing in Japan at this time of year. Somehow, KFC convinced everyone in Japan that Christmas = fried chicken. It's like mind-control or something. As an aside, to set the record straight, I roasted a turkey for the Christmas party last night. It turned out alright. It was about 10 lbs. Kinda small but just the right size for my oven.

Oh, and then there's the Christmas cake. Yeah, at first, I was like what? Christmas cake? But the Christmas cake has become a staple in the holiday season here. It's just your basic 6-8" round sponge cake with white frosting with all sorts of decorations on top. But this is the Christmas cake. I don't know how many times I've been asked, "Do you make your own Christmas cake?" Or, "What do you put on your Christmas cake?" The concept is so widespread that in Date, your can buy your own Christmas cake in the supermarket, coffee shop, even convenience store. That's right, at 7-11 in Japan, you can pick up your chips, coke, and a Christmas cake. No slurpee though. They don't have slurpee machines yet. But to compensate you can buy oden and all sorts of bentos. Sure beats that shriveled up Big Bite that's been rolling around for who knows how long.