Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve Day!
Christmas is a completely secular holiday in Japan. This makes sense, of course, when you realize that less than 1% of the population is Christian. Hence, there are no nativity scenes, and Christmas Eve is not spent at church or with your family, but with your boyfriend or girlfriend, or lacking one of those, with your friends.

This year I spent Christmas Eve Day in a particularly religious fashion. Not all the same religion, but... After having lunch with a friend, we went to see an art exhibit at a wonderful little temple, Honen-in, just off of the Philosopher's Path. The artist had made light exhibits from plants, such as leaves, roses, and these orange things whose name I do not know. Next we went down to Rokuharamistu-ji, a Shingon temple in southern Kyoto so I could do a little research. The temple was holding open services of the nenbutsu odori, a dance and chant first performed by the monk Kuya in the Heian Period to ward off diseases and plagues. We listened to the explanation, watched the dance, and recieved a fuda, a piece of paper blessed to protect you against illness.

Afterwards, on my way to the Christmas Eve service, a Japanese woman stopped her car on the side of the road and came running after me. "I'm looking for English speakers to give them this." She hands me two magazines. "Please read them." And then she walked away. They were Jehovah's Witness magazines.

I went to the Christmas Eve service at Japan Evangelical Lutheran Kyoto Church. I've gone to this church a few times, but it's not very welcoming. After the service I stood eating some cookies and no one, not even the pastor, said anything to me. The service was okay, though. They had some people playing Bach on the violin and piano, which was a nice contrast to the Christmas carols in Japanese. You know how some languages are just so nice to sing church music in? Japanese is not one of them. It always sounds so broken up and forced. This is really odd, since their popular music fits the language so well. And you would think music would fit well with a syllabic language.

Anyway, I came home and made strawberry shortcake, and watched a movie, and had a nice relaxing Christmas Eve.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!