Christmas in November

For an essentially non-Christian country, Christmas sure does come early in Japan. "Oooooh", cries the latent cynic, "surely not an excuse to cash in on the Christian calendar's gift-giving nadir???"

Mikimoto has gotten in on the act - their Ginza store Christmas tree is already aglow. "Hmmmm" muses the latent gold-digger, "maybe Santa (you know who you are) will bring me the gift of pearls this year!?!?".

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, particularly because I can pig out (pearls before swine?) with few pangs of guilt all in the name of Jesus, but the christian world has been held ransom to the horrifically commercialised Christmas propaganda thing, and nowhere does it seem more obvious than in Japan, who really has no excuse to cash in. But these days, what's sacred, really when the country's economy is gurgling down the drain?

In less cynical news, Matt and I ventured into Ginza, not to critique Japan's merry merchandising, but to dine at our new favourite izakaya chain, Hana Noren. We set up camp at one of the tatamied (speeling?) sunken tables and got quietly sloshed on a variety of ridiculously sweet fermented fruit liquor, umeshu (plum), momoshu (peach), remonshu (lemon) and budoushu (grape). Man, that shit's good.

The gaggle of salary-men in the private room next to ours, though, were getting not so quietly sloshed, singing loud and debauched reprises of the omnipresent but so 2002, "Nandedarou" (you guys in Japan know the song I mean) and generally disturbing the peace. Takushiiii!!!