perfect we all love it for different reasons  family food jesus as for me i like it because  

of the presence to get the presents that i  so sorely deserve i like to mock beneath the  

christmas tree the night before christmas  and guess what's inside each and every box  

this year though my christmas eve was rather  stressful when i opened my phone to reveal some  

some pretty worrying news instead of getting a  jovial man burst down my chimney i received a  

news alert informing me that my beloved bathmat  that i've been using every day for two years now  

is actually filled with asbestos the toxic fiber  known to cause lung cancer asbestos heavy bath mat

yeah on the second day of christmas my true love  gave to me a bathmat filled with asbestos and a  

partridge in a pear tree doesn't really work  does it doesn't really fit the sort of upbeat  

christmas narrative yes rather embarrassingly it  turns out one of japan's biggest retailers sold  

2.4 million items manufactured in a dodgy factory  in china where they tried to cut costs by stuffing  

various household items full of asbestos and if  you know the correct way to dispose of asbestos  

please leave a comment below help because i don't  really know what to do i mean i could do in a  

broad japan christmas giveaway could be rather  good no actually it's probably not a good idea  

but to be fair in a year where absolutely  everything went wrong it seemed like a fitting  

end to the year seemed like a fitting end to  2020 to get a visit from the ghost of christmas  

asbestos now for the past eight years that i've  lived in japan i've actually only been here for  

three christmases typically i flee to the uk to  stuff myself full of mulled wine and cheese but  

with everything going on in the world i couldn't  do that this year and there are many reasons that  

i avoid christmas in japan like a lot of foreign  residents that i know living here so in this video  

i thought i'd answer some key questions number one  what's it like to have christmas in japan number  

two why do i avoid it and number three why do i  recommend not visiting the country between late  

december and early january for some pretty big  reasons which i'll get into in a minute but before  

that you might be wondering what father christmas  did actually bring me this year in between  

bath mats filled with cancer and i did actually  receive some pretty amazing things and some  

not so amazing things as well but we'll start  with the good stuff and my first thing is this  

cd projekt red the makers of cyberpunk 2077 uh  send me a collector's edition of the game in this  

gigantic box because it turns out some of the team  at cd projekt red actually watch abroad in japan  

how awesome is that and i look forward to playing  that on my imaginary playstation 5 when it arrives  

sometime in the next 10 years because right now  not even god can get a hold of a playstation 5. i  

do have a playstation 4 but i want to wait until  the glitches and performance issues have been  

ironed out so i could play it the way it was meant  to be played so thank you to cd projekt red for my  

favorite christmas present the second present well  it couldn't be any more different you might be  

aware that here on the abroad japan channel we've  tried and failed miserably to uh get ken watanabe  

japan's number one actor to feature on the show  for some years now fantastic actor you might have  

seen him in inception godzilla or the last samurai  however my pursuit of him has been so ruthless so  

obsessive and disturbing that i suspect any  chances of ever getting him on the show are pretty  

much gone by now but fortunately this christmas  an incredible viewer sent the next best thing uh  

which is of course [ __ ] up a life-size cardboard  cutout of the man himself there he is ken watanabe  

in the flesh in the cardboard and i look forward  to finding a use for ken sometime in 2021 most  

likely to uh scare children right let's just put  him over here in the background good old ken there  

you go actually it looks really looks really quite  disturbing let's just not do that you can go over  

there ken right present number three we're now  going into not so good present territory i think  

that might be an understatement this is white  musk uh air freshener it has this rather troubling  

english on the front that says uh john's blend  hang it in a closet a bedroom entrance doorknob  

etc john's proud aroma will spread in your room  john's proud aroma will spread in your room what  

a disgrace who is john why is he so proud of  his aroma what does it actually smell like  

oh god [ __ ] it smells like cigarettes apples  and despair i don't know what john was thinking  

i don't know why he's proud of that and finally  firmly at the bottom of my list quite comfortably  

is this pen shaped like a carrot might just be  the worst christmas present of all time from a now  

former friend and it says here in big letters  fresh veggie pen these look so real veggies  

look so real veggies but they are pens the veggie  pen would be a very fun gift item would it it's  

hard to imagine why someone felt this was an  appropriate gift item an item so unimaginably  

[ __ ] that it's practically begging for somebody  to buy it as a gift um and there you go a carrot  

like a pen clearly no expense spared there i'm  starting to think the asbestos bath map would make  

a better gift than this so how does japan  celebrate christmas does it celebrate  

christmas at all well even though roughly  one percent of japan's population claims to  

be christian and december 25th is not a public  holiday the christmas season does still exist  

in a rather bastardized commercialized form in  fact on the surface it almost looks like christmas  

back home in europe or north america you've got  the decorations the music the christmas trees  

the kfc bucket all right maybe not everything  but interestingly christmas in japan starts a  

month earlier than back home it kicks off on  november 1st when all the decorations go up  

christmas trees candles crap covers of last  christmas you can enjoy all that from november 1st  

but even though the christmas season starts a  whole month earlier than it does back home it also  

ends early as well rather bizarrely it ends on  december 26th almost overnight all the decorations  

and every sign of christmas is removed it's taken  down the end result is christmas in japan captures  

that excitement in the right to christmas day but  then boxing day just feels rather hollow and empty  

it's a bit like having a three-course meal but as  you're about to dive into dessert someone chucks  

a rock at it and [ __ ] it all up but you know  what for any criticism i may have of christmas in  

japan i'm still grateful to have it in some form  because you are able to get in the festive spirit  

despite it being a purely commercial holiday  uh where the origins of christianity and the  

nativity are all stripped away after all jesus  never really made it to japan well that is  

unless you believe the people of shingle village  and elmore prefecture where they believe jesus  

was quite literally laid to rest no i'm not making  it up tucked away in the mountains of north japan  

there's a tomb with a cross and even an impressive  stone tablet written in hebrew to commemorate the  

real resting place of jesus as well as an in-depth  story of how and why jesus made this surprising  

journey honestly it's either the most compelling  conspiracy in the history of christianity or it's  

a shitty pr stunt that went a little bit too far  uh and i'm inclined to believe it's the latter but  

i'm not here to judge you decide in the comments  below uh all i know is when i covered it in a  

video a few years ago an australian newspaper  referred to me as an alternate theorist which  

is a title i never knew i wanted but in the  absence of jesus the closest thing japan has  

to a divine spiritual figurehead for the festive  season is an individual of great power and great  

wisdom and i am of course talking about colonel  sanders and for once i'm really not exaggerating  

when december 25th rolls around colonel sanders  is essentially jesus christ and father christmas  

rolled into one when 3.6 million japanese families  sit down to eat a kfc christmas dinner which  

perhaps unsurprisingly is exactly what i did this  christmas the kfc christmas menu is a big deal for  

kfc said to make up a third of kfc japan's yearly  sales which is completely believable given you  

need to reserve it almost a month in advance  in order to secure the premium christmas menu  

the festive tradition kicked off in 1974 when a  kfc manager allegedly heard an expat claim that  

chicken was the next best option after turkey  a meat which isn't commonly sold in japan kfc  

marketed their chicken party bucket as a delicious  alternative with the slogan kentucky christmas  

literally kentucky is christmas the luxurious  feast doesn't come cheap though at around four  

thousand yen about forty dollars though you do  get a lot of bang for your buck including a party  

box packed with eight pieces of chicken a triple  berry tiramisu and a shrimp gratin thrown in for  

extra measure for the real big spenders you can  even snag an entire premium roast chicken which  

costs a whopping 5 600 yen about 56 but seeing  as natsuki isn't a big spender this year we did  

without it's such a weird like array of dishes  and food kfc chicken a christmas cake and a gratin  

all laird under what's going on do you want it  merry christmas merry christmas so happy christmas

grace is over cold been over

maybe oh we're not quite that scared for  today while i'll admit the kfc christmas  

menu is no match for a full-blown christmas  dinner it's still a fun way to celebrate the  

christmas season i'm sure colonel sanders  would be proud and undeniably surprised  

to see how his finger-licking good food has  somehow become a beloved japanese tradition

so the main reason i avoid christmas in japan  is i always think back to my first christmas  

that i spent here back when i was an english  teacher working at a senior high school it'll be  

an empty senior high school because on christmas  day in japan there are no students they've all  

gone home for the holiday season however because  christmas isn't a national holiday in japan  

i still had to go into work i sat at my desk and  did nothing all day on christmas worse still the  

entire staff from was empty i worked with 120  teachers now those 120 teachers only about four  

of them actually stayed around and did something  while the rest took their annual leave in the  

run-up to the new year's holiday so what that  meant was i was sitting in a staff room alone  

just sort of doing doing nothing uh on christmas  day i was very stubborn i didn't want to use my  

few days of holiday leave i wanted to cling on  to it like the final hand grenade for a special  

occasion after wasting the day away at my desk i  trudged through the afternoon blizzard and i just  

remember i fell over in some snow and that was  that was a real low point i remember laying there  

in a pile of snow frozen to death while  my phone was bombarded with messages  

from friends and family around the world  eating turkey having fun opening presents

i cursed the day i stayed in japan  for christmas and did nothing

to be fair i only had myself to blame most of  my uh foreign colleagues had either gone home  

for christmas or going skiing for the week uh i  was just a little bit stupid you know the absence  

of family and friends and a good christmas dinner  is one thing but there's all the other things you  

take for granted at christmas you know sitting  down to watch tv watch another remake of a  

christmas carol or a rerun of die hard or sitting  in a pub with a glass of mulled wine all those  

things it took moving to japan to make me realize  that there was far more to christmas than just  

christmas day itself and while my favorite bit  of christmas is actually those relaxing days in  

between christmas and new years where you can  sit down and play with your train set and open  

your buzz lightyear toy meanwhile in japan  though far from being relaxing in those days  

after christmas the whole country suddenly gets  very busy and chaotic and turns into a nightmare  

there are a few things scarier than going to  an atm and discovering that it doesn't dispense  

any cash especially in a country where cash is  king and credit cards still don't often work but  

that is exactly what happens over the new year's  holiday in japan where families across the country  

enjoy a rare get-together and for a short time the  country shuts down during new year's families in  

japan descend on temples and shrines to pray for  good luck in an event called hatsumode literally  

the first shrine visit and if you're into that  aspect of japanese culture it can be a rewarding  

experience to visit the country and take part  pray for your own good luck but if not i would  

genuinely advise you not to visit the country  between december 25th and january 5th because  

traveling is anything but fun whether it's  queuing outside one of the few restaurants  

that are still open standing for two hours on an  overcrowded shinkansen or wondering how you're  

gonna pay for it all because the atms don't work  between december 29th and january 3rd and for the  

three years that i've been in japan for new year's  i've forgotten this every single time and had to  

beg for money from my unamused friends i mean this  time this year again i have forgotten and i've got  

uh five i've got about a thousand one  thousand and eleven yen which is enough to buy  

like four kitkats um for the next few days still  if the worst comes to the worst i could always  

pawn off some items i think there's enough  here to maybe buy me uh maybe four or five  

breadcrumbs so there you have it christmas in  japan it's not really that bad is it and i mean  

the kfc christmas bucket while it's no  substitute for a real christmas dinner  

and as long as father christmas doesn't bring  you a carcinogenic bathmat japan is still one  

of the better non-christian countries to be  in if you want to get in the christmas spirit  

you know what 2020 not a great year but we  still do get to do some amazing things here  

and i wanted to end this video with a montage  of some of the highlights and best moments from  

2020 here on the everyone japan channel but for  now guys as always for more behind the scenes  

videos check out the abroad japan patreon  in the description box below and on behalf  

of myself natsuki ryotaro pete donaldson from  the podcast and now ken watanabe himself i'd  

like to wish you all a very merry christmas and a  happy new year roll the tape welcome to my house

this is

right that's not a green screen look i can  reach out i can touch it i can touch it