I believe you all know the song "We wish you a Merry Christmas" but every time I hear this song, a question comes into my mind: who are "we" in this song?
I'm in Japan this Christmas, and I saw all the beautiful illuminations in every street.
Yes, Christmas is a very big event in This country, especially for children and young couples.
Why? Very simple. Presents for kids, and beautiful dating places for couples. It's not really a family event in here.
Yeah, Japan is a mixed-cultural, multi-religious country.
But my question is, why we don't celebrate Buddah's birthday as much as we do for Christmas? Even though we are know as a Buddism country?
Well, enough for a beginning thought.
I had a Christmas party with my coworkers tonight, and on the way back home, I came across a situation which really made me question about what we can do for people.
I was taking trains on the way back home. As you may already know, The train system in Japan is very neat. Especially around Tokyo, there are train statins every 2 miles. Seriously.
And one of the unique phenomena we have at big stations is that there are homeless people sleeping there. They've got roofs there, and it's relatively warmer than sleeping at parks.
So, it's not unusual for me, actually, to see those people at big stations.
What was unusual for me today was that I saw more than 10 homeless people lined up and sleeping with carbons at one station.
Yeah, it's Christmas. They probably know it.
But they couldn't do anything other than sleeping there, hearing the steps and laughs of happy "usual" people.
Christmas.
People are happy, celebrating the special day.
But it was also a day which clearly brought up the absolute difference of the life standards existing in Japan.
What are those people thinking on this special night?
Who else would think about them on Christmas Day?
Maybe I'm a little too crazy.
But, what can I do as a Japanese to make this country a better place?
Just a little bit.
What can be done?
What can I do?
Or, what can't I do?
Maybe that can gie me more options.
At least, I'm writing this blog out of that question.
I really wish you, a Merry Christmas.
Kazuaki,
ReplyDeleteI feel sad to say, but Christmas nowadays turns to be more like a commercial festival than the real meaning of Christmas. It may be because of capitalism causing a lot of homeless. I don't know what the solution will be, but I believe give people more love will make the world better.