These beliefs aren’t all bad news, but I’m also not persuaded that if you’re pregnant and you want to have a girl, you should get your husband to eat bananas or that it’s good luck if your first dream of the new year is about eggplant (along with Mount Fuji and a hawk, because hey, why not?)

But apparently some of this folklore might not be completely off the mark. The idea that eating eel is good for you in hot weather might actually have some validity: it’s high in vitamin B1, which is lost in sweat. And some of it’s actually not totally unfamiliar: In just about every country ever, people believe that there’s always room for dessert, and that eating that dessert – or another snack – at bedtime makes it even more fattening.

It’s curious that these two beliefs are shared by different cultures, including the US and Japan. Are we both equally nuts? Or, just maybe, could this mean that there’s something to these notions? This is pretty important to me, because while I could easily go my whole life without eating eel and fried melon together, I eat a LOT of snacks and sweets. I dream about baked goods. I plan my trips to Japan around where I can get black sesame ice cream. So these are vitally important questions.

Well, fortunately for me, and those of you who are similarly obsessed, Japanese science is on the case. And so is Japanese science TV, which really gets the idea of “News You Can Use.” For a few years, NHK had a program called the Kaitai Shin Show (translated as The New Anatomy Show) and in the two episodes that I’ve lovingly preserved via DVR, they examined these two beliefs, with important results for your snacking life.

There’s Always Room for Jello, or Strawberry Cream Cake

English-speakers often jokingly say that dessert goes into a second stomach. And in Japanese there’s a word for it: betsubara. (It’s a combination of “betsu” meaning “other,” and “hara” meaning belly, with [h] changing to [b] as it does in the case of rendaku.)

Of course we don’t literally have more than one stomach like a cow, but as a metaphor, it sure seems accurate. Even if you’re so stuffed that you can’t fit one more bite of dinner, somehow, you can still eat something sweet afterwards.

One Japanese gastroenterologist, Shigeki Koyama, realized that he could actually test this belief, and his experiment was re-created for the television show. Two women volunteers got into their hospital pajamas and ate a several-course French chef cooked meal brought in specially for the purpose. A tough job, no doubt, but someone had to do it – as the narrator so wisely explained, “We can only find out if we have special room for dessert if we’re full.”

One woman raised her hand when she felt full and was led into an MRI machine, where her totally packed stomach was easily seen on the screen. Then, the moment of truth: she looked at a big piece of cake.

The MRI image (reproduced above) clearly showed that the shape of her stomach changed – it became narrower – and started pulsing at the opening to the intestines. Merely looking at the cake was enough to cause the stomach to make more room by pushing food out of itself.

The second volunteer’s stomach acted a little differently, but still made room: When she had finished her dinner there was a tiny empty space in her stomach on the MRI, and after she looked at the cake, the image showed that it had gotten bigger.

The Science of Betsubara

Back in the studio, professor Takashi Yamamoto of Kio University explained that it’s not the stomach that tells us when we’re full – it’s the brain. When the stomach is full, blood sugar rises, which makes the satiety center of the brain say “stop eating” (or if your brain is Japanese as the one in the diagram on the show, “Taberuna!“) .

So how does just a glance at cake change this? There’s another part of the brain that releases beta endorphins, which cause excitement and euphoria – and the desire to eat cake, which, of course, is one of life’s most reliable, exciting, and euphoric experiences.

Then, this also triggers the release of dopamine. These chemicals together stimulate the feeding center of the brain, which yells TABERU!, and drowns out the satiety center, which is trying to tell you that you should stop now. What’s more, the feeding center secretes orexin, which moves food into the intestines, making room for the cake, exactly as the MRI images showed. Sweets bring out more beta endorphin than other tastes, which is why, say, salty rice crackers don’t have the same effect as dessert.

Bad News for the Ladies

Do women really like sweets more than men? Unfortunately there’s apparently some truth to this stereotype. Females are more sensitive to beta endorphin than males, so their effect in making you want the cake is stronger. And another study, with rats, showed that when given unlimited access to sugar water, female lab rats would drink twice as much over a 24 hours period as males.

The professor explained that this is due to the fact that female hormones have many roles, including allowing us to put on more fat. Great. Thanks a lot, nature.

Do Bedtime Snacks Make You Fat?

Studying the betsubara effect called for high tech equipment, but the next experiment is so gloriously simple that with enough self-discipline you could do it at home. In a study conducted in 1993, seven women in Okinawa were somehow persuaded to eat the exact same meal three times a day for ten days, at 7:30, 12:30, and 6:00. At the end of the period, all seven had lost weight.

Then, they ate the same meals for another ten days, but now, dinnertime was changed from 6:00 to 10:00. At the end of the second ten days, despite eating the exact same food with the exact same number of calories, all seven women had gained weight.

Bedtime Snacks Vs. Afternoon Tea

This is a pretty mind-boggling result. How could the same number of calories make you fatter simply because they’re eaten at a different time of day? An obvious possibility is that going to bed right after eating means you don’t get a chance to burn the calories. But that’s not it, as Professor Shigeki Shimba of Nihon University explained. It’s because there’s a protein in your body that controls accumulation of fats in cells, and it varies in amount according to the time of day.

When there’s more of this protein, called BMAL1, cells can take in more fat. What the research found is that the amount of BMAL1 is lowest at 3 PM, and four times higher at 11 PM.

So there’s bad news and good news. The bad news is that bedtime snacks really are more fattening: that’s a time when your cells are going to store more fat from whatever you eat. The good news is: you can have afternoon tea instead! 3 PM is the best time to trick your body into storing the least possible fat from a snack.

Don’t Be Ruled By Your Stomach Clock

The bedtime snack habit can be hard to break, because some people say that they need their treat to get to sleep. They’re not just whining, according to Shigenobu Shibata, professor of the incredibly cool field of Chronobiology at Waseda University. You can even show the same effect with rats: lab rats were fed at bedtime with an automatic feeder and after a few days, they couldn’t fall asleep without it.

Why? You’ve probably heard that your body has a biological clock, but it turns out, there’s actually two: one in your brain, and one in your stomach. Normally they’re synchronized, but you can get them out of synch by eating bedtime snacks. Then, as in the betsubara effect, you’ve got another argument between yelling body parts: The biological clock in your brain is trying to tell you to sleep, but the stomach clock, sure that it’s nowhere near bedtime, drowns it out.

Fortunately, it’s easy to reset the stomach clock: it’s entirely determined by what time you get up and eat breakfast. Bedtime snackers who need the snack to sleep are usually also those who skip breakfast. So, get up and eat a good breakfast and you should be on your way to re-setting the stomach clock and giving up that fattening bedtime treat. And then you can thank Japanese science – and Japanese TV – for your new, svelte, afternoon-tea-eating self.

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Bonus Wallpapers!

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Birthdays In Japan

Japanese birthdays are not as big a celebration as they are in the West. In fact, there was no custom of celebrating birthdays in Japan until around 1950! Before this, there was only one day on which to celebrate birthdays (everyone’s birthday) and that day was New Year’s Day. This was because ancient people thought everyone got older on New Year’s Day, not the day they were born. Since then, however, Japan has been influenced by Western culture, so they started celebrating people’s birthdays on the date of their actual birth.

In Japan, the only time you’ll organize your own birthday party is when you are a child, although your parents likely played a bigger part in the actual organization of it than you did. The cake is a “must” and we sing “Happy Birthday” in the dark and blow the candles out on the cake (a 1:1 ratio of candles to years). It’s the same as Western culture, isn’t it?

Now that I’m an adult, I feel uncomfortable when someone says “Hey, I’m having a birthday party on Sunday. Can you come?” In Japan this discussion would take place in a conversation amongst friends like, “Hey, Mami’s birthday is on April 9th, so we are planning a birthday party. Are you available that day?” When someone celebrates their birthday, though they can have a say in where to go or what to do, it’s customary that when making arrangements, inviting people to it and paying the bill is not their responsibility. Food is, of course, a big part of Japanese culture, so it is very common to be treated to a meal on your birthday. A lot of restaurants also anticipate birthday parties being held there, so they keep cake and candles on hand for such occasions.

In the case of my husband and I, he doesn’t like being the main person of focus or attention, so he never plans an event to celebrate himself. Knowing how much he dislikes it, I’ve only organized a party for him once.

Birthday For Couples (Women)

However, this sort of “surprise” party is usually held a few days before or after the actual birthday because the birthday person may have a boyfriend or a girlfriend and they usually go on dates for special occasions. Even high school students, if they have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, will go on a date for their birthday.

According to research conducted by Ozmall in June, 2011, 56% of 800 women ages 20 – 29 years old want to spend their birthday alone with their boyfriend or husband. As for a presents, 27% want accessories, 20% want to go to a restaurant, 17% just want to spend some time with their partner, 9% want to go on a trip within Japan, 7% want to travel abroad, 6% want to be proposed to, 5% want brand-name things such as bags or wallets, 2% want a watch, and 7% want something else (miscellaneous).

Many of these participants said that the reason for wanting an accessory was “because I want to feel my boyfriend/husband is with me at all times.” Isn’t that romantic? Lovey-dovey vomit tummy! Ugh, I just tasted the gyuudon I had for lunch.

Birthday For Couples (Men)

The same organization conducted another research study among 200 men who have a wife or a girlfriend and about 70% of them answered that they go on a date for their birthday.

In regards to presents, most of them actually answered that they would be happy with anything their girlfriends gave them, but they do have a preference for what they would like to do on their birthdays. 28% said that they would like to go on a “dinner date to a fancy restaurant,” followed by 16% who wanted to “stay in a hotel,” 15% who wanted to go on an “onsen date,” 13% who wanted a relaxing night in, 6% who wanted to go to a theme park (ex. Disneyland), 4% who wanted to watch sports, another 4% who wanted to eat at an average restaurant, 3% who wanted an relaxing spa date, 1% who wanted a beach date, and 10% wanting other things (miscellaneous).

I think you can see a lot of the differences between men and women right there.

Romantic Birthday

So, the birthday is as important for Japanese couples as it is for couples from many other countries. Although most couples don’t bother making plans that fall very far outside the norm, others want to be very unique as a way to show their boyfriends/girlfriends that they are special. A classmate of mine from university falls into the latter description. I remember he once wrote a poem on the back of a picture of himself that was enlarged to life size and gave it to his girlfriend at a Kobe beef steak restaurant. If I was her, I might have been embarrassed because he told me this monstrosity (imagine a Justin Bieber life-size poster) was standing behind them throughout their entire meal at a fancy restaurant. Apparently, the girl was very impressed and quite taken by the amount of thought put into her present.

Trying to make your significant others’ birthday very romantic is not only a Japanese thing, but a commonality shared among many countries. According to S(Initial) , a 35-years-old female, she dated a very romantic German man for a while and now she’s having a lot of difficulty finding a nice guy like him. Here is her description of her romantic birthday.

“On my birthday, he gave me a picture frame with three pictures in it. There were three messages, one underneath each picture. The picture on the left was of him when he was a baby and the message read “I was born into the world, and…” The middle picture was a picture of him and me together and the message read “an angel…” The one on the right was a picture of me and him hugging each other and the message read “caught me” (Her cheek turned red as she spoke). It was such a great present and I felt so happy.”

The border between cheesy and romantic is so difficult to distinguish sometimes. What’s cheesy to some is romantic to others. Personally, I think this was adorable. I hope my husband doesn’t read this article so I can do the same thing for his next birthday. Think he’ll like it?

Lame Birthday That Turns Women Away

Photo by armigeress

Although some plans work out well, like the one above, others could be considered cheesy or lame and cause women to turn away. I found and shared a few of the lame ways in which men confessed their love to women in my previous article: Japan’s “Love Confession” culture. Why not learn the type of birthday plans that turn women off, as well? It’s often said that “failure is a stepping stone to success”, right? Luckily, I found research conducted by my-navi-woman from June 3 to June 10, 2013 in which over 389 women were asked about this topic. Let me share some of them! (I apologize in advance for not being able to find one for the opposite sex, which would be “lame birthday plans that make men flee”)

「期待しといて！1日予定空けておいて」と言われて、めっちゃ期待したのに、結局ノープランだった（32歳／女性）
I was told, “Look forward to your birthday and please be available the whole day”, but he ended up having no plans. (32 year-old-woman)

How bad is that? Was the surprise that there was no surprise? If so, good work! You shocked her right out of wanting a boyfriend. I wonder why he couldn’t come up with anything, though. I mean, even a last minute idea could be a “yakiniku birthday” where you spend the whole day out eating lunch and dinner at a yakiniku restaurants and fill in the gaps at the mall letting her pick out a shirt or two.

レストランで店員さんにハッピーバースデーを歌われた。全然うれしくなかったので、喜んだふりするのが面倒だった（29歳／女性）
In a restaurant, all the waitresses sang “Happy Birthday” to me. I wasn’t happy at all, so it was difficult to pretend as if I was glad. (29 years old woman)

It seems that being sung to in front of a lot of people would more than likely be embarrassing for most adult Japanese women – perhaps most people? I certainly would be, anyhow.

ディズニーランドに行ったときに、彼氏がいろんなスタッフに「彼女の誕生日なんです」と言って至る所で歌われたこと（28歳／女性）
When we went to Disneyland, my boyfriend told every single staff member, ‘Today is my girlfriend’s birthday”, and every single one of them sang “Happy Birthday” to me at every single place. (28-year-old woman)

This may be more embarrassing than being sung to in a restaurant! Hey, since we’re at a theme park, you might as well just tar and feather me, throw pies in my face (preferably strawberry), set me up as the dunkee at a dunk tank and hire a comedian to crack jokes about me while I dirty up the water.

オリジナルソングを歌われた（35歳／女性）
I was sung an original song. (35-year-old woman)

Original songs can be a death sentence, unless you are really good at it. I think you also need to have a relationship with a few thousand miles clocked up for that to work. Perhaps not, but I think a truly good original song would come from knowing someone really well.

サプライズをするつもりが自分で事前にばらしてしまった（34歳／女性）
He was planning a surprise party for me, but he accidentally told me. (34-year-old woman)

That’s a bit careless. Maybe he was too excited about the party to keep it secret from his the person he most loved. Actually, that might be the perfect thing to say to get yourself out of that blunder.

誕生日プレゼントを宝探しのように探させたかったみたいで、暑い中蚊に刺されながら探した。プレゼントを見つけるまでに疲れ切ってしまって、もうどうでもよくなりました（30歳／女性）
He wanted me to find the present he got me, like a treasure-hunt, but it was summer and I had to look for the present outside on a very hot day while being bitten by mosquitoes. He hid it very well, so I had exhausted myself before finding it and gave up. I literally thought, “Whatever!” (30-year-old woman)

I guess he wanted to make it like an attraction in a theme park. Live and learn, I suppose. Next time make it a little easier. Not everyone wants to solve a Rubik’s Cube on their birthday.

誕生日を祝おうと言われて彼氏の家に行ったら彼の両親や家族が勢ぞろいしていた。サプライズの方向がおかしい（28歳／女性）
I was told “Let’s celebrate your birthday” by my boyfriend and I went over to his house. Then I found out that all his parents and relatives were there. It was such a weird surprise party. (28-year-old woman)

I believe that most of women need time to prepare when they meet boyfriend’s parents and his relatives. Furthermore, it is weird that only his family and relatives were there on her birthday and not her friends or family, isn’t it?

誕生日に彼氏が私の好きなアニメのコスプレをして登場した。3次元にそういうの求めていないし似合っていないし最悪だった（25歳／女性）
On my birthday, he showed up dressed as my favorite anime character. First of all, I don’t like it when 3D people try to be 2D. Furthermore, he didn’t look like the character at all. It was horrible. (25-year-old woman)

It’s pretty sad that he didn’t look like the character at all. I wonder what the character was. I hope it wasn’t a titan from “Attack on Titan” because they don’t wear any clothes.

高崎白衣大観音に連れて行かれた。渋すぎる……（29歳／女性）
I was taken to Takasaki-byakue-daikannon. It’s too cultured for me. (29-year-old woman)

Takasaki-byakue-daikannon (aka Takasaki kannon) is a huge statue of Kannon (the goddess of mercy) at Jigen-in temple in Takasaki city in Gunma prefecture. It’s height is 41.8m and it weighs 5,985 tonnes. It would be fine for a normal day, or even a date, but a temple is too cultural of place to celebrate a birthday. I wonder why he decided to take her there. Perhaps he didn’t know her very well, yet.

誕生日なのに、仕事帰りに彼氏の知り合いの誕生日会に参加された（23歳／女性）
Although it was my birthday, he joined a different birthday party after his work. (23-year-old woman)

That’s a Japanese guy for you. Not all of them, of course, but many of them make work, or even friendships between men, more of a priority than girlfriends and relationships.

So, how do couples celebrate birthdays in your country? I heard that in Portugal, celebrating before the actual birthday will bring you bad luck. Are there such birthday related superstitions where you are from? How do couples spend their time on each one’s birthday? Do they give presents and what is commonly given? What is your most memorable birthday involving a significant other?

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Bonus Wallpapers!

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Of course, tempura wasn’t the only thing these missionaries introduced (although I’m sure glad they did, because damn, tempura done properly is so good). They also brought over the Christian religion and, not surprisingly, Christmas – which the Japanese have taken to with great gusto.

The Most Wonderful Time of The Year… Unless You’re Single

These days, come December in Japan, Christmas decorations crop up just about everywhere, hymns are constantly on the airwaves, and there’s probably a Godzilla Christmas tree at the local shopping mall. In other words: Christmas is huge in Japan, although in a strictly secular sense.

In any case, free to interpret Christmas any way they like, the Japanese have decided that it is… another Valentine’s day, basically. It’s a day for romantic dinners at expensive restaurants and letting the food get cold because couples are too busy gazing meaningfully into each others’ eyes. You know, that sort of stuff.

This Christmas-as-Valentine’s deal is not a bad idea, I guess, since Valentine’s has pretty much lost all romance in Japan: there’s hardly anything romantic about “obligatory chocolates” (義理チョコ, giri-choko) after all. So hurrah for an actual day for lovers to celebrate!

Of course, too much of a good thing is no good, and the emphasis on having someone special to spend Christmas with can get out of hand. So much so, that if you’re single on Christmas, you’re a “loser dog” (負け犬, make-inu).

But, regardless of whether you’ve got a significant other to spend Christmas with or not, Christmas in Japan just wouldn’t be the same without Japan’s “traditional” Christmas meal: a finger-lickin’ good combo of Kentucky Fried Chicken chased by some strawberry shortcake – Japanese-style, of course.

What Is This Strawberry Shortcake You Speak Of?

Unlike the dense fruitcakes of most other countries, Japan’s unofficial Christmas cake is an airy sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberries. That is to say, it’s not actually a shortcake… and strawberries? In winter?

Anyway, this Japanese-style strawberry shortcake was first sold in 1922 by Fujiya Food Service Co., Ltd., although nobody really knows who came up with it in the first place. Some claim that Fujii Rinemon, the founder of Fujiya, brought the idea back with him from the US. Others claim that Kuniteru Kadokura of Colombin Co., Ltd., was inspired by a French dessert.

Peko-chan is Fujiya’s mascot. You’ve probably come across her smiling, tongue-sticking-out face before since Fujiya also makes heaps of other sweets and stuff.

Strawberry shortcake proved so popular that once refrigerated displays became readily available in the 1960s, there was no stopping it. Nowadays you can probably get it from any bakery or convenience store in Japan. It’s such a specifically Christmas dessert, though, that after Christmas, businesses slash their prices drastically to get rid of any unsold strawberry shortcakes. Some businesses may even start dropping their prices on Christmas Eve:

These big discounts and Japan’s youth-obsessed culture meant that not too long ago, women were referred to as Christmas cakes: once past the age of 25, her value as marriage material would drop significantly (because, you know, Christmas falls on the 25th). Like most other countries, though, these days it’s normal for both men and women to marry later.

Season’s Greetings, Folks!

So, how do you plan to spend your Christmas this year? What’s your opinion on Christmas in Japan? If you’ve spent Christmas in Japan before, tell us what it was like in the comments!

DISCLAIMER:
Make-inu is a general term for loser, and its use it not restricted to singles on Christmas.

Wow! Wow wow wow. Whoever made this, send me an e-mail. Well, technically I know who you are, but I don’t know how to contact you, so please e-mail!

I have this thing set up where I get notified every time someone links to Tofugu, or even mentions the word Tofugu, so every time you say something about us, I’ll know (I’m like Santa that way). We’ve always wanted to make a Tofugu cake over here on our end, but now we’ve been shamed with this piece of glory. I don’t think we’ll ever be able to look at cake the same way ever again. More pictures in all their glory, after the jump.

We’ve been getting a lot of fan art lately, so thank you everyone for that! It’s really awesome to see the talents of everyone, and we appreciate your hard work very much! In fact, here’s another really cool one by Priscilla made just for the holidays! How did you know it’s snowing like crazy here?

You can check out all the other fan art in the Fan Art section of the site, which can be found here. Thank you so much, everyone, and see you tomorrow with a ridiculous translation of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.