Christmas is strange in Japan.  It’s not a holiday and it’s not celebrated in any religious way but it’s still well known.  It reminds me a bit of Valentine’s Day only with Christmas symbols and elevator music.  I found it difficult walking around the local supermarket as it sounded as if a tribe of smurfs had been let loose to sing bad Christmas music.  It may not have been so bad if they had only played one song at a time but they have a fondness for placing CD players in different parts of the store so each section can have its own competing music.

Christmas food exists, though it’s not turkey and ham.  There is a Japanese Christmas cake, which is a light sponge covered in cream and strawberries.  And then there is Christmas fast food.  Mos Burger runs an X-mos burger campaign but this pales compared to KFC’s Christmas food.  KFC has its own version of Christmas dinner with party buckets and roast chicken.  We had friends staying for Christmas and thought it would be fun to have KFC on Christmas Eve.  We had to book this weeks in advance and even then there was only one free time slot.  Over Christmas KFC doesn’t sell its usual food in the evenings but opens for collections of pre-ordered Christmas dinner.

We ordered an eight piece party bucket and a roast chicken.  The chicken was surprisingly good though the gravy was a little strange.