According to Taiwan Nichi Nichi Shinpō, the leading news paper during the Japanese era, the earliest records of non-religious commercial stores decorating with Christmas ornaments was in 1918. By 1919, the news paper mentioned Santa Claus. The articles even provided sketches of Santa.
Interesting how Christianity never really made it in Japan while pretty much everything else did.
About 1% of Japan’s population is Christian.
That is about 1,273,368.07 people.
I would say that is quite a few.
That is the entire population of Kyoto and more.
What is really surprising is that 128,216 of those are Mormon.
An American religion sold to over a hundred thousand people who bought it.
When you consider the exposure they’ve had to Christianity, the western values that came with the Meiji Restoration, and the total population…a mere 1% is really surprising.
It depends on your expectations. The way things turned out in South Korea and the Philippines may seem logical, but when you think about it, aren’t they the exceptions?
I still have to ask who taught Japan the commercialization of Christmas. 
The credit for that goes squarely on the good ol’ U.S. of A.
So I go past this Hess every morning on the way in, and yesterday I noticed that on their sign (not the location pictured)
They’ve covered the “SCHOOL” part with packing tape.
Looked like Montreal in the late 80s when everyone was taping black garbage bags over the anglais parts of their signs to avoid getting shut down.
So I reckoned there was some kind of rule or reg or something requiring some kind of qualification to legally refer to their establishment as a “school”.
But then I noticed it was only the English part of the sign that was covered.
Has anyone heard of any such requirement in English?
Not that I give a monkey’s, it just struck me as odd.
In Chinese part, there is no term corresponding to school.
Well the Shogun stopped their encroachment by brutal means.
Yes the history of Christianity in Japan is long and full of repression by authorities–going back at least since the Portuguese were in Nagasaki in the 1580s.
Guy
Yeah, I know, I was just intrigued that there would be some rule about what they call theyselves in English
A part of reasons Christianity in Japan was repressed by authorities is a slave trade by Portuguese coming with Jesuits.
Yeah, now that I think of it…it makes sense.
The holidays are winding down, but some ABT friends are still coming to spend NYE in Taipei.
What’s whack is they thinking they know are more local than you and know the city better than you because they got the MRT station map memorized. Bro, I name one road that’s not a name of an MRT station and you already lost without Google maps!
/rant
At least Taipei City is (mostly) a grid. Send 'em to Tainan and see what happens. 
Guy
I actually sometimes wonder if someone gave me an address (in Taipei) and told me a cross street that it’s near, would I be able to find the exact location without Google maps.
I sometimes still get confused in what comes after Minsheng, Minquan or Minzhu.
Fuck Tainan, jump the river to Zhonghe and challenge them to get from A to B.
Start them at the intersection of Jian 1 Rd and Jian 8 Rd.
Now you’re talking crazy. I swear I once walked straight for a couple hours there, and ended up back where I started.
Dude, I feel like inner Luzhou is more of a clusterfuck.
But do these places have any game against Wanhua?