A Roman In London (from Tokyo)

The season is coming. You can see full of illuminations, hear famiiar music, anywhere on the street. I walk quickly, trying not to see or hear them.

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I hate Christmas, since it reminds me of the happiest time in my life, which I won't experience again. More correctly, I don't remember it clearly...human instinct eliminates your memory when it hurts you too much. I just remember that I was happy. And, it was cold. Too cold. There were lots of illuminations. I sang Christmas songs. That's all I can remember.

Foreign friends are amazed when I talk about Japanese Christmas. Most of Japanese people are not interested in religion, and Christmas is treated as the most romantic and biggest event for lovers. A young man or woman who spends Christmas with his or her family is called "loser". Not to be treated as a poor, miserable person, you have to find a lover before Christmas.

Do you think I'm joking? Here are feature articles of magazines for young people these days. "How to get a boyfriend before Christmas--you have 10 weeks left!" "Effective dress to vamp him on the Christmas date" "Skin care to make you look most beautiful on Christmas" "The last chance to find the one before Christmas"....etc.etc...

As you can imagine, lots of people find "the one" just before Christmas and then break up in a couple of days. The most important thing for them is whether they can join their friends or not, when they are talking about their special, romantic Christmas date. Women tend to make a fuss about it than men. If you are lucky to have a girlfriend and if you tell her that you won't spend Christmas with her, she would kill you. An expensive present is also important to satisfy her.

On the other hand, there of course are couples in serious love. For them, spending Christmas together is a ritual to reassure their deep, serious love. The ritual is so important that a girl can fly to a foreign country to do it.

Both of us were at a loss when the coach reached New York on Christmas Eve. We had expected crowded and exciting streets like Japanese ones on Christmas Eve. However, shops were about to close and few people were walking. We realised that American Christmas is different to ours. We started to laugh. It was cold, too cold, but I was happy.

Christmas songs I hear on the street are exactly the same as two years ago. The different thing is I don't sing it any longer.