Having Your Christmas Cake and Eating It.

I am not a big fan of Christmas, it must be said, though not for atheist reasons. My Christmas aversion is down to the commercialisation of the Winter festival of light. In England, the countdown to Christmas usually starts in October. This is one of the reasons I like living in Japan: here, Christmas is looked upon ambivalently because most Japanese people do not see it as an excuse to buy expensive presents because it isn't a part of the Japanese culture.

However, it's usually around this time of year that I debate the merits of staying and going for the festive season. Of course family is important but to be honest once I've eaten and drunk my fill I can hardly move nor talk.

I'm staying in Japan this Christmas and have no solid plans. I feel that I may visit England next year but maybe not; the Christmas mania will probably drive me mad. Here, the biggest mania is probably Kentucky Fried Chicken being full or Cozy Corner having idiotic queues, but if that's the limit, I can deal with it much easier than Northumberland Street in Newcastle being full to the gills, or The Bridges in Sunderland doing its sardine tin impression.