I haven't posted for a while, but I am still here! The job is keeping me exhausted but the end of this year is in sight, with the promise of a winter holiday to recover...
The year-end in Japan is special on a few levels, and one custom for this season is "Oseibo", or the giving of gifts to our acquaintences, usually on a household to household scale. This probably originated from the sharing of crops at the end of the harvest, so today still many of the common gifts are really staples, for example large packs of coffee, beer, detergent, etc. I was humored recently by this department store's catalog ad for a gift package of ham:
Yep, those are $50 & $60 pairs of ham and bacon. The funny thing, more than the price, is that immediately above the ad is this picture...
assuring us that the source of the bacon is from two terrified pigs trapped on an island, next to nature's perfect smokehouse! Mmmmm.
Luckily I received Oseibo today in the form of a bag of apples ;)
2 comments:
I'm glad I skipped the bacon this morning.
That is too funny.
My kids and I laughed out butts off at your description.
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