Saturday, November 24, 2012

What was Thanksgiving Like in Tokyo?

Thursday was not a holiday in Japan.  My American firm did not give us the day off, but they did cater a lunch that included turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and little pumpkin pie squares.  It was nice of the firm to do this... I was missing my family and our traditional Thanksgiving a lot that day.

Friday was a Labor Day holiday in Japan so our office was closed.  One of the associates coordinated a pot luck for the unmarried associates.  He made the turkey--which was great because turkey can be hard to find and many of the ovens, if you even have one, aren't large enough to cook a turkey.  I broke in my kitchen by cooking up some creamed corn (the real adventure was in shopping for the ingredients).  Dinner was tasty and it was nice to have company.

I heard from a kiwi that I met in Japanese class that the Japanese expect all white people to celebrate Thanksgiving even though it's really just an American and Canadian holiday.  He seemed a bit put off that his Japanese friends were continually asking him what he would be doing for Thanksgiving.  So, there is an awareness of Thanksgiving here, but I didn't see any decorations or explicit acknowledgement of it.

2 comments:

CP said...

I'm thinking Thanksgiving and the holiday seasons would be the hardest time to be away from America for me. Glad you got to celebrate a little bit :)

Unknown said...

That's funny about your Kiwi friend. I find it so interesting what other countries think of us :)