This is the first year that I have noticed (with great foreboding of the nature of future years) that Christmas in Japan has finally "arrived" on a large scale.  A lot of shopping areas put up decorations and the Kobe "Illuminarie" has been going for serveral years to commemorate the victims of the Hanshin Earthquake, but this year, the TV commercials seemed to take on a different spin: namely that things being advertised without a Christmas connection, seemed to feature santas or families acting "Christmassy"

Christmas in Japan is basically thought of as "romantic" and officially it is when a couple dress up and go out for a posh dinner and eat iced sponge! I was greatly amused by the tree in Mio department store (my second home") This year it featured TV screens that inbetween having santa bouncing around, showed a recurring two minute video of a girl alone on Christmas Day, but who finally meets a guy.   Talk about taking the Christ out of Christmas!
 

Quack quack

I wonder of the definition of being out of your mind involves going out in the cold to view a giant rubber duck?
I was, however, cheered to discover that it actually appears to be taking your own smaller version and taking pictures of it in front of the duckzilla version (Santa togs for the teeny version optional!)

I was never a huge fan of Walnut Whips,

but I hope that my path is never darkened by one again after discovering that they appear to share their shape with the average faecal matter of the average Japanese.  You may wonder why I know that Japanese people produce a whorl of turd, but the answer is simple: they draw them every where.  Not just the kids.  This one was drawn by one of my 40 something private students who went on to explain "Asian people eat a lot of rice, so our stool is very big."

If you want to feel really old

Make sure that you take a group shot of yourself with a bunch of 18 year olds. Go on! I really recommend it.  Exactly half a life time away. Actually, it was perhaps worth it as the group in question managed the not so rare feat of making me shed a tear or two.  I also sucked air through my teeth today.  This was pointed out.  Apparently, this is a Japanese trait.  I just thought it eas a universal "I'm not sure if that is the case". I was encicled by my share of the KoIII Sogo course girls after their final English class as they each spewed forth a sentence ("Rebecca, in Japanese OK") saying how much they had enjoyed the class and like me.  I think the dam burst was caused by the noisy crew saying "Sorry we are always noisy and you have to tell us to be quiet all the time!"