Here in Japan, there is less of a Christmas card giving culture. Not suprising really, because Christmas was imported in from the West, and pretty much the commercial aspect only.

In Japan, although the calender is based on the Western one now, the importance of New Year has not declined. Also, like the Chinese, there is still the 12 year cycle of different animals for different years. Here in Japan, we’ll be celebrating the start of the Year of the Dog, but a couple of months before the Chinese who do it at the traditional New Year start.

So, since New Years is important, they have New Year Postcards rather than Christmas cards. People sometimes go to the shops to get ready made ones, with appropriate messages on them. Sometimes, especially with the advent of cheap photo printing at home, people make their own homemade ones.

So, what everyone does is writes LOADS of these cards (its also used as a way to keep everyone up to date with your address and contact details) and sends them off in the run up to January 1st. Then, on January 1st, everyone gets their ‘nengejo’ (New Year cards) at the same time.
Well, thats the plan, except this year, there was a slight cockup. What I like about this, is that they will be collecting them again, and redelivering. Whats the point of that! :)

Meanwhile, some other news snippets.
Once again, the Japanese tabloids have been amusing me, and thanks to WaiWai section over at MDN for the translation. This story should not be read by the more prudish viewers.

Meanwhile, back in the UK the cold-snap continues… and for the South-East of the country, a little bit of snow is proving to be a national disaster in the making. The comments at the bottom of the page gave me a good chuckle.

Finally, this also made me chuckle about Police Officers in the UK being caught by Revenue Generating… sorry I mean Speed Cameras.
To be fair, most were done so when on their way to an emergency… but I noticed some were genuine speeding cases it seems. Muppets.