--- Rann Aridorn <rann-chan@comcast.net> からのメッセー
ジ：

John Campbell wrote:

Christmas isn't as big in Japan. The Ranma manga

skips Christmas

altogether.

Funny, I read the exact opposite in a fairly
credible, non-anime-related
source. It spoke in some places about Japanese
customs involving giving
gifts (like, how if you receive a gift, you have to
give the one who
gave it to you an even nicer gift, and thus they
have to give you one,
and it can get caught in an endless cycle), and that
Christmas was a
really big time for them because it got the whole
"get one, have to give
one back" thing out of the way all at once. It's
also an excuse to
really dive headfirst into the commercialism,
something they've embraced
wholeheartedly.
Also, a great deal of anime have Christmas episodes,
so I'd say "The
Ranma manga doesn't make a big deal out of it" is
not a good judge of
whether it's huge over there.

-Rann

Well I'm going to "jump out on a limb" here and say as a
general fact Christmas is not a big deal in Japan.  It
doesn't even come a fraction close to what is does in the
US... even from a purely commercialism POV.  Mike
Noakes... anyone else with some decent time in Japan can
and will easily back me up on that one.  The same as in
the US... don't believe everything you see on tv.  The
Obon season in Japan is a bigger deal than Christmas and
New Year is THE holiday in Japan.  Valentine's Day and
corresponding White Day do command a bit of commercial
attention.  This is not to say Christmas is totally
ignored... that isn't true either.  In places like Tokyu
Hands you can get a plastic tree and maybe find wrapping
paper and some places will have Christmas theme
decorations for a day or two.  The honest truth is that in
Tokyo it's fairly minor... in the countryside it's
virtually non-existent.  For the Japanese Christmas is a
day for couples... girls worry about having a boyfriend or
a date to spend Christmas with.  New Year is going back to
your parents or ancestral home and visiting family.  


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