But there are times when one is called upon to bend this golden rule, and state โ clearly and plainly โ that those WERE the days. Hell, yes. One is referring to the Japanese Christmas, of course. Back in the day, or the s to early s to be exact, Christmas was drenched in two things: sex and money. A quick round-up of the salient spending points: dinner in a swank restaurant followed by a night at a hotel, where the exchange of gifts will lead to carnal delights and a morning-after confirmation that yes!
On average, the sum total ranged between , and , yen. I know of guy after guy who went into debt, just to splurge on a woman who was likely to ditch him before Valentines Day came around, not two months later. Of course, no one mentioned or was interested in the fact that Christmas marked the celebratory birth of a baby called Jesus, who spent his first night in this world swaddled in rags and laying in a manger.
Okay, so the Japanese were clueless about the significance of western religious. Still, the fevered anticipation of it all, the sheer, heady delight of champagne and room service and red strap sandals elaborately wrapped in gorgeous chiffon paper! Women had to spend too, on hair salons and lymph drainage treatments and pedicures, not to mention the all-important issue of the Christmas dress. Take the case of my friend Rika, whose most triumphant Christmas was in when she invested in a facial, a massage and a Chanel dress but skipped the lingerie entirely and squeezed four dates into a single Christmas Eve.
After however, the Christmas-scape altered perceptibly and 3. The only people shopping at Miu Miu these days are those who speak Chinese. Ditto for people with reservations in four star hotels.
Have we lost our capacity for ridiculousness, our carpe diem mentality and taste for sexual pleasures? Japan is turning gray at breakneck speed and now everyone seems to be middle-aged or older โ too mature to go overboard on just about anything.
