Christmas vs. Buddhism in Japan, all about New Year's, and a Japanese math problem for you to solve

The Christmas holiday means different things to different people, and each country has its own way of observing it. By and large, Japan is a Buddhist nation, although it seems that many people here don't consciously think about themselves in terms of the religion, despite the Buddhist altar, incense and candles in their house -- it's just atari-mae (ah-TAH-ree MAH-eh, mean "taken for granted") that these objects should be in a Japanese home. Because there isn't a long tradition of celebrating the yuletide as there is in the West, Christmas tends to be a bit of an external thing here, less of a holiday (not a holiday at all, actually, as everyone has to go to work), and more of a special time for different segments of society, such as children who look forward to presents, couples who are planning a special date, and friends gathering for a Christmas party with lots of karaoke. One thing I've noticed is that Christmas tends to be an American thing in Japan, having presumably been filtered through the U.S. occupation from 1945-1951, and Japanese today know who Santa Claus is but have little awareness of "Father Christmas" and other British images of the holiday (although they have Christmas Cake here). This is a bit of a bummer, since I've always loved the images presented in Tolkien's Father Christmas Letters (a treat if you don't know them, hunt them down on Amazon), and read them to my American/Japanese kids often. Just a week after Christmas comes the most important of days in Japan, Oshogatsu, aka New Year's Day. Everyone is making preparations now, buying New Year's decorations to hang on their doors, display in the foyers of their homes, or in some instances, fix to the hoods of their cars. One of the most famous types of decorations is called kagami mochi, lit. "mirror rice cake," attractively arranged pressed rice that are delicious with a dollop of soy sauce. Tonight it's time for us to make our nengajo, or New Year's Cards, which we mail out to all our friends here. I'm torn between choosing something from the excellent Taste of Japan nengajo art collection we've posted to the site today or taking a picture of the kids with our dog Chibi (since 2006 is the Year of the Dog). After school my son attends a juku, an after-hours study school that compliments his school curriculum and ostensibly covers some of the subjects he's learning at school, but in Japanese (since his school is 70% English). His juku teacher likes to give mind-bending math problems to the students and see if they can find the answers. Here are two such problems that stumped me. Each of the equations below is incorrect. Add one straight line somewhere in each of the two equations to make it correct. See here for the answer.

He're happy to announce that Ever 17 is now in stock. A great new release from Hirameki International for Windows PCs, this is an incredibly dramatic bishoujo title that all fans should play. It is May 1, 2017, and without warning, seven people are trapped in an undersea marine park. Water, air and food are in short supply, and the protective bulkhead can only withstand the pressure of the surrounding water for 119 hours. How will they interact, by cooperating or fighting each other for the scarce resources? Will love grow between the doomed members? Who will betray whom? A super new interactive title that all fans can enjoy, in stock in San Diego! We've gotten in a huge volley of some of our last stock of 2006 anime, idol, JPOP and other calendars, so now is a great time to browse our selection and make your orders. Restocked calendars include this year's runaway hit Tsubasa Chronicle (all three versions), the always-popular Studio Ghibli, Totoro and Domo-kun calendars, lovely Leon Kadena, Gackt's amazing offering, beautiful Japanese women in hot springs, famous castles of Japan, and a whole lot more. The stock we have will be the last we get in for these calendars, so hurry! Here are today's "really cool products" that I thought were especially noteworthy. Note: the J-List links below may be for adult products and should probably be considered "not safe for work." To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	eonna Dec 2005 ~ e onna with DVD Region All. As time goes by, I really come to appreciate eOnna, which means "good woman" but with the "good" also translatable as "hot n' sexy." The women, who are mostly AV idols like Mihiro, are all non-nude in this mag, which has the potential to be more exciting.
	A Taste of Japan: Japanese Style New Years Cards Materials Collection. This is a fantastic item -- a book and CD-ROM collecting hundreds of images of nengajo that you can use to make your own cards, or use it as clip art for other projects. The pictures are in standard formats like JPG and PNG and are not protected.
	Ever 17 - Out of Infinity . I like the look of this game a lot -- the story is very dramatic and the art is fabulous. It's U15 game, suitable for ages 15 and up. Great story and artwork in this, the second PC game from Hirameki.
	Tekoki Clinic 7 ~ Masturbation by Nurse hands. This is, er, a really interesting series, and recommended for fans of the fetish of tekoki. Basically, these nurses are damned professional, and never break their "stern but kind nurse" face for anything.
	White & Black Maiden Shaman. In case you haven't seen this costume in anime shows like Inuyasha, this is a Miko, or a Shinto shrine maiden. Now you can fulfill your fantasty to see a shrine maiden be ravished.
	Tokugawa Aoi Pins. All families have a Kamon, or Family Crest, in Japan. My own family's is a circle with three lines through it (signifying "three" although why I don't know). This is a pin that is the family crest of the Tokugawas, the former Shoguns of Japan during the Edo Period.
	Jiji *Knit Type* Plush -- M ~ Kiki's Delivery Service. Kiki's Delivery Service is second only to Totoro in the quality of the toys that Ghibli licenses, and this is no exception: a "knit style" (e.g. handmade-looking) Jiji plush.
	Lotte Sour Orange Gum. Every year at the end of the year, Aya Ueto starts appearing in CMs (TV commercials) like crazy. This year she'll be doing Lotte Gum, which is okay with us. This new Sour Orange gum is really delicious.
	Elecom USB Speaker -- White. New speaker system for notebook computers. Personally, on the iBook I used to have, the top volume wasn't loud enough to hear the DVD I was watching if there was any other noise around, so I'm glad to have this.
	Pika Pika 3 ~ Sparkle 3. Nice erotic magna by Misaki Kawamoto, who is a female erotic manga artist, something that's by no means rare in Japan. I think that's kind of kinky.
	Glico Fuyu (Winter) Pocky w/Cocoa Powder. New flavor of Pocky, dusted with cocoa powder to give it an elegant and luxurous taste.
	Bleach "Taizen" Volume 1 ~ Full Set (Set of 8). Bleach is the show to watch, it seems, and it's getting really popular this year. Here's the first set of figures for the show we've carried. Full sets in stock (along with some individuals).
	Daruma Mask. This is a first -- a mask that's based on the Daruma, round red little gods that are associated with Shintoism (and hence with New Year's). We'd love to see a biker gang with these on their faces, called Daruma-gumi or something.
	Maneki Neko Mask -- Lucky Cat. Even weirder than the Daruma Mask is the Lucky Cat Mask, complete with the little paw and everything. I see that our stock has sold out even as I typed these words (that has to be a record), but we'll get more in.
	Kitty Trio Set -- Poodle. Did you know that Hello Kitty changes every year? It's true, one year she's flying in an airplane in a blue sky (1973) and before you know it's she's gone to live in Hawaii and is all tanned (1998). This year is "Hello Kitty with her cute Poodle" (2005).
	Kagami-Mochi Soap. A cool item we like to carry every year, this is the soap in the shape of traditional Kagami Mochi New Year's decorations. Guaranteed to score points with Japanese who come over to your house and fall to the floor in shock when they see this in your bathroom.
	Kagami Mochi -- Large. Kagami Mochi is the traditional decoration of New Year's, delicious rice cakes stored inside a round white decorative shell (well, in old days the shell was actually made of mochi, but a giant hard brick of pressed rice is somewhat hard to eat later).