Christmas Shopping Mission

Once you have made it through the hot summer in Japan, Christmas seems to come around so quickly. Whether you are spending the festivities in Japan, heading home or elsewhere for the holidays, those last few weeks in Japan are always hectic. Things needn’t be such a stress – it is just a matter of appreciating the differences Japan offers at this time of year and realizing both how far Japan has come in accommodating the Christmas-celebrating foreigner, not to mention the possibilities now available worldwide that make this time of year easier on all of us….

For those first couple of Christmases, gifting from Japan is easy. One simply raids a souvenir style store and can easily achieve the majority of purchases required. Of course, given you are actually in the country, one is not limited to the cheaper, airport-style stores and you can get people some amazing authentic Japanese gifts. Gradually over time, this becomes more and more difficult having exhausted the spectrum of token Japanese items to give. Not only do you become sick of giving them, but no doubt those at the other end get sick of receiving them as well….

While Tokyo streets are always crowded, the fact that they don’t suddenly become ten times crazier as with most other countries during this time of year is somewhat of a comfort. And for those of us accustomed to shopping in mayhem with often seemingly the population of our home countries on the pavement, Christmas shopping feels like just another typical shopping excursion – since crowded no matter what day of the year it is. Japan does not ignore Christmas gift giving although gifts are generally restricted to lovers and also tend to be of the extremely exclusive and expensive variety, thus, spending does significantly pick up during this time of year. What it means for us foreigners doing the rounds, in efforts to buy for the whole family strategically avoiding certain stores, or indeed parts of town, can limit the amount of traffic you come across according to where you shop.

One of the major barriers to an efficient shopping trip is the careful balance of living night versus day at this time of year. In true Japanese style there is end-of-year celebration after end-of-year celebration, and then add the foreigner populated Christmas parties with attendees attempting to make up for the relative lack of surrounding Christmas spirit… you find yourself leading a rather nocturnal existence. The ability to get up and hit the shops early becomes a struggle and consequently your present purchasing effort is severely affected.

The reality of the matter is however, that nowadays you barely need to step out your front door in order to get your Christmas shopping done. With all the online purchasing and delivery that you can achieve from the other side of the world, not only are your shopping stresses reduced to a minimum, but also those journys home needn’t mean your luggage be full of presents - clothing to see you through the holiday need not be sacrificed. Of course the longer you are away, the less familiar you are with deciphering suitable gifts for people – you don’t know what their new house is like, whether they have this or that, etc. Sometimes asking people outright, while lacking the mystery and excitement of gift-giving, ensures there is less disappointment upon opening.

There is of course the other option which I have to admit to making some use of this year – confessing it’s all just a bit hard and exploring opportunities to effectively ‘outsource’ the present purchasing. While some find solutions in contributing to presents through monetary value only, I have been lucky enough to having one of my favorite siblings (I have two favorites!) doing all my purchases in my home country for me. It is hard to not be putting more of a personal touch on the presents I give, but at the same time I can’t help be grateful for how much grief and effort it has saved me.

Besides, it makes sense. I am not venturing ‘home’ this year and by now my family members probably all have enough Japanese memorabilia to start their own souvenir store! I’m sure they’ll know that I send the gifts with as much love as had I labored over the whole exercise myself….