The illumination lights for the Christmas season in downtown Sapporo look somehow shabby without snow. With or without the snow, December is the month for “forget-the-year party, ” which is a typical “follow-up social activity” in Japan. The Japanese go out to dinner and drink not only with business colleagues, but also with vendors, customers, friends and sometimes with relatives. We are not surprised, therefore, to hear that a sales person has the party almost every night during December. The follow-up social activities in Japanese businesses have been slowing down due to the continued staggering economic conditions and partly due to the mentality of the younger generations who make much of individual activities rather …
Monthly Archives: December 2013
Getting trees ready for snowfalls
Landscape gardeners in Hokkaido are expected to have painstaking craftsmanship to hang tree branches so that they would not be broken by the heavy snowfalls during the winter. Those bonsai trees, like the ones we find in the front yard of the Hokkaido Government office, every one of them are taken care of by the professional hands. I recall that my grandpa had that knowledge and technique, however, I did not get the chance to learn from him.
Munich Christmas Fair in Sapporo
I hear that this annual event in Odori Park was started to commemorate the 30th year of Sapporo’s becoming a sister city of Munich. Both cities, famous for beer production, hosted the Olympic Games in the same year, 1972, winter in Sapporo and summer in Munich. The idea of this event is to enjoy the atmosphere of the Munich Christmas Market in Sapporo with hot wines and German sausages. Night time, therefore, is the high time, I guess. It’s definitely not a time for beer, but HOT wines? I’ve never come across hot wines before, but they are spiced and mulled and offered during the Christmas holiday season. Thank you, but I’ll …