a tree bus
christmas approaches. to many it’s a time eagerly anticipated (say, if you are a kid), or rather like me, if you happen to gnash your teeth at hearing a christmas jingle for the umpteenth time as you go about your day. what i don’t uderstand is, these stores and public places that play christmas music 24/7 as the day approaches… do they not realize how grating these songs become after a while? i pity the store employees who have no choice but to endure this aural assault all day long.
then there is the whole damn gift giving thing. gee, thanks a lot, three wise dudes of the orient for starting a real annoying tradition. it’s come to a point where most people including me have begun to associate christmas with which mp3 player to buy as a gift. that is just sad.
sometimes, i think scrooge had it right. man, screw that cratchit dude and his incessant whining about how one oughtta be jolly during christmas. i think he was secretly a slacker who was looking for excuses to lollygag.
well, no, that’s not quite right. yes, scrooge is a mean-spirited and miserly dude, but then again, what was the moral of “a christmas carol”? that you can become a saint if you go about handing out gifts and yelling merry christmas like a dolt? i’m not even sure if dickens wrote this. it was probably sponsored by best buy or hallmark or something.
i do remember when i was little, i did get the most kickass christmas present(see? a religious season reduced to memories of gift receiving!). it was a train set, with three locomotives that would switch as it pulled into the station. it even had the shinkansen! now, that’s what i’m talking about.
korea and japan gets in the mood too, during this season. of course, there is the gift giving thing, but curiously, the evening and the day is seen as not so much a family holiday(indeed, most japanese work on christmas day), but time to spend having fun with friends, coworkers, or one’s sweetheart( think christmas parties). and of course, there’s the “christmas cake”, and the joyous waiting for “grandpa santa claus” if you’re in korea, or “santa-ojiisan” in japan.
well, in korea, they have taken it step further with a “christmas bus”. in an article submitted to me by a loyal reader in korea, there’s apparently a bus that goes around all decked out with christmas tchotchkes INSIDE. we’re talking about tinsels, lights, the whole nine yards. even a friggin’ christmas TREE!
according to the article, it’s so that people who haven’t got such decorations in their own homes can feel the warmth of the christmas spirit.
i’d say, i think it would just depress people even more. they probably think “damn, even the crappy seoul buses can have christmas decoration. i’m such a failure!”
i wonder if christmas season and the festive decoration inside the bus has any calming effect on the usual maniac drivers of seoul buses. if i was a driver, driving along all day with a damn tree behind me in the mirror may move me to mow down an extra pedestrian or two.
but that’s just me.
from tvreport.co.kr