It’s October! Meaning: We’re slowly drifting into autumn and it is getting much cooler. I still sleep with my window open though, but I’m using a warm blanket now.
We’re also drifting towards the end of the year. In the Western countries this means that ever so slowly, Christmas decorations are creeping into the stores, and Christmas cookies and advertisements for “the best gift for Christmas”. This is happening in Japan too, albeit on a much smaller level. After all, the big thing here is not Christmas, but oshogatsu – New Year.
However, in the big department stores and supermarkets, you can already order osechi – traditional bento boxes meant for New Year that are filled with food that is meant to bring good luck for the coming year. And although the Japanese don’t celebrate Christmas as a religious event, there is some gift-giving and partying, especially among young people, who like to give each other Christmas cakes, which you can order together with your osechi already.
While I was browsing this year’s Christmas cake catalog for something with the most amount of chocolate, I came across these little gems:
Yes, these are cakes especially for cats and dogs. Not pet food though, real sweet cakes that we could eat as well; the one on the left is a cheese souffle properly decorated with Christmas ornaments. It’s not as if I haven’t seen this before, people do feed their pets pretty much anything and to a point, I can understand that you want to celebrate with your pet – even though they couldn’t care less about Christmas or any other holiday.
But the price here is preposterous! 1958 YEN (after taxes) for a cheese souffle of 11 cm diameter? Really? The cheapest one for humans is 1728 YEN, and that one’s 15 cm in diameter. Are people really so much in love with their pets that they would buy something like that, something the cat would probably appreciate less than a can of tuna? Obviously, otherwise it wouldn’t be offered. Oh well… different strokes for different folks. And their pets.