Tis The Season!

Ahh, winter in Japan. Not a snowflake in sight, and people lining up for fried chicken. I love it!


Tradition. Big word. It's hard to talk about tradition in Japan, because I can't tell the difference between tradition, fad, and habit--I'm in a prety isolated situation, here, and my wife is not necessarily a representative sample of Japanese society. BUT...

One thing I can tell you. A Happy Kentucky Christmas is the BEST tradition in Japan.

I can't tell you how it started for sure. Apparently, the story is that when KFC first came to Japan, it was Christmas time and their campaign cenetered around happy White People (tm) eating fried chicken in front of the Christmas tree. The campaign must have been very successful, becuase it resulted in two things: A very successful KFC in Japan, and a big equal sign between Christmas and Fried Chicken.

Japan now eats chicken on Christmas. Not just KFC--grocery store chicken, convenience store chicken, everywhere sells fried chicken. However, KFC is the big winner...people line up for hours, around the block. They buy $50 roasted chickens. They make reservations a month in advance for their Chicken buckets. (They..I should say We. I am a JOYFUL participant). And on the big day, they hire traffic contollers to guide thecars into their tiny, 12 space parking lots.

I'm making NONE of this up.

Chicken on Christmas. Yum YUM!