Bah humbug!

I know this might sound terrible, but one of the perks of living in a distant country from one’s own is to escape the over-hype of Christmas. Maybe I’m wrong, but when I first came to Nippon a few years ago, I only seem to recall people putting up a token gesture of a decoration, perhaps a tired-looking bit of tinsel or some dusty old Santa-san on Christmas Eve…and that was if the date was remembered correctly. 

This year, however, to my horror I came face-to-face with a gigantic Christmas tree in Chayamachi in Umeda in (bah humbug, wait for it) November! There’s nothing worse than being premature, but that really takes the (un)seasonal biscuit in such a blatently non-Christian country.

And to make matters worse, the tree itself is emblazoned with a big red heart carrying the slogan LOVE ChiroN 4ch. Anyone have the foggiest what that one’s on about, then? Could it be a cryptic warning that Marsians are on their way to get us?

SOS: Xmas has come early and gone awry.