How do Japanese people celebrate Christmas?

Is that a question you might have had?

Well I will give you my expert knowledge into the culture of Japan.

About 1%, or less than, of the Japanese population affiliates with the Christian denomination. However, Japan has seen how well the Christmas festivities instill cheer in Americans so they have created a commercial Christmas. Much like our commercial Christmas, people buy each other presants, decorate stores and houses with lights, have Christmas parties, and may even have a Christmas tree. It's great that the cheer of Christmas can be celebrated in Japan!

Parents can give gifts to their children and co-workers and expect gifts from their children. It's a great time of year to make homemade gifts for your family!

For younger people in Japan, Christmas is like Valentine's Day again. If you're a young person in Japan you'd buy your crush or sweethart a present. And instead of giving them homemade chocolates like on Valentine's day, you'd give them a Christmas cake. That is usually homemade. Usually the girl gives the guy the confections, just like on Valentine's day. And if you're a guy it's a great time to confess to your crush, it may even be a better time than Valentine's day. Confessing is a Japanese concept meaning to divulge or confess your feelings of love or infatuation to your crush.

Let's learn romajii!
Suki - To Like
Daisuki - To Love
Aishiteru - Love (noun)
In Japan if you like someone as more than a friend you will tell them suki. If you love someone, the huge L-word, then you will tell them daisuki.

It is believed in Japan, that Christmas is a magical time of year for love, like Valentine's day. I could believe that because the original meaning of Valentine's day was to dedicate a day to martyrs who loved the Christian religion enough to die for it, including St. Valentine. If Valentine's day is a day of love, then Christmas can also be a day of love. But I won't go too far into my own religion.

Lights are everywhere in Japan on Christmas. It can even make the lights adorning NYC look shabby...

Ah another reason to move to Japan ^^

And this has been RPGHero's expert advice!

Japanese Culture with RPGHero

Have you ever wondered what the purpose of cell phone straps are??


Today's post on Japanese culture is about cell phone straps.

There are some in America that rock the cell phone strap on their phone but it is nowhere near the level of cell phone strap usage seen in Japan. Business men, mothers, children, teenagers, old people, macho men, kawaii (cute) girls, all of these people can be found carrying cell phone straps in Japan. Not just teenagers like in America.

So the answer as to what purpose they serve?
The answer is that they serve any purpose. That's right, you heard me. They serve any purpose fitting to the person carrying the strap on their cellie. And let me tell you, the different types of cell phone straps are evidence of this.

If you look in our first picture you'll see for yourself. Look closer and you'd see that it's a cactus growing in a small vial?!?! Wierd right? Well the idea was most likely perfected by a Japanese man or woman. Wouldn't you want to be the lucky person with a cacti attached to your cell phone?

Popular among Japanese youth are the straps that personify their favorite anime or manga character.

The cast of One Piece in cell phone strap form!

Do you all remember my very first post on Otaku Reviewers? It was about a power stone good luck charm! I bought this:

It's called "good luck in relationships". Once I put it on my cell phone people started texting me out of the blue and my friends noticed it when they saw it. It was like magic, but that has since broke. The next cell phone strap I'll buy is going to be the ultimate!!!

But lets check out other good luck straps.

This one is called: The Beckoning Cat.
Japanese folklore holds that a cat beckoned to a Japanese emperor or something and he had such good luck that he got through misfortune and was hence lucky. That's why you see these in Asian stores EVERYWHERE! They say that a beckoning paw toward a person or shop can attract luck and a beckoning paw away from something can cause bad luck to be shoo'ed away.


This picture combines EVERYTHING! It combines cuteness, a lucky diety costume, a cat, and a cartoon idol. HELLO KITTY!

Well I could go on and on providing descriptions of different, the oh so many, different cell phone straps of Japan.

If you'd like to see them for yourself go to
Strapyaworld
Click the link above

Strapyaworld is a Japanese company that translated their wares for sale in America. So it basically has every strap EVER! So... if you have a hook on your phone or a phone cover that has a cranny, it wouldn't hurt to accessorize!

(There you have it, an info post. Rather than a cool and random video. *can you see how I'm trying to redeem my future* And I did say before the morning...)


They even have a strap that's supposed to show you the colors within your aura for the day. Is it cool or hoax?!

They even have one that detects ghosts!

RPGHero's Random PowerUP!

Heya here's RPGHero with a new segment. I'm going to tell you all about a PowerUp I've encountered in anime, video games, pop culture, reality, etc. The key is that it's a PowerUP and can either increase someone's power or change them into something more badass!

Today's random PowerUP is the "Ju Nen Bazooka" or translated to "The Ten Year Bazooka"


The ten year bazooka is an item carried by this little guy


His name is Lambo and he is from the anime "Katekyoushi Hitman Reborn" or "Hitman Home Tutor Reborn".

The ten year bazooka is a item that was created by Lambo's mafia famiglia, the Bovino family. Anyone can fit inside the bazooka and once inisde the bazooka it transports that person ten years into the future. The intriguing thing about this item is that it covers a serious aspect of time travel, what entity replaces the time traveler in the present time. Well when the present self is transported ten years into the future the future self from that time is brought to the past. One interesting aspect is that once the bazooka is used the future self is transported doing whatever they were doing in the future.

(SPOILER ALERT)
This item is useful in the "Reborn" world because it's a world of fighting and dueling. Lambo, though he's five, is chosen to be a guardian of the Vongolia famiglia. His first serious use of the item was to bring his future self back to the present in order to fight against the adult he must duel to claim the role of guardian. So once he was summoned at 15
 
he wasn't strong enough and ran back into the bazooka to be summoned at the age of 25.

And by then he was definitely tough enough to beat that guy but one important thing about the ten year bazooka is that the time travel can only be sustained for five minutes.

He had to fight this guy who's an assasin

And I'll go on a tangeant to say that he is black.
Why can't they be the good guys??
Enough of that tangeant... You might be watching something new but like this one day with black main characters.. just a hint from ya informer RPGHero (it's still in the developing stages though).

I guess if I was one year older than Lambo and had a Ju Nen Bazooka I'd be mad set. Because I was tough at 16 and I'm banking on 26 to be a stronger year... And I'll keep my mod's to one sentence at the end of these posts. You're welcome!

Check out how it works lol.

He's really not the same kid who loves cake anymore... (SPOILER)