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Comment by brudgers | Hacker News Reader

“Those whacky Japanese” is a perennial category of bus-plunge journalism.

It only seems odd if you don’t think about it much. Americans don’t think Honey Baked Ham or Boston Market on a holiday is weird though both are franchises and Boston Market was formerly a McDonalds brand.

Try to book a table at Outback on Valentines (or even get seated at Applebee’s).

And while Americans have good cause to celebrate Benito Juarez saving their bacon by stopping the French while Americans were busy killing each other from fixed positions in the Civil War, Taco Bell chalupa combo boxes with a forty ounce no ice Mountain Dew doesn’t really align with Cinco de Mayo any better than extra crispy at xmas.

Every body is whacky.

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> “Those whacky Japanese” is a perennial category of bus-plunge journalism.

Perhaps, but this isn't one of those stories. There's a genuinely interesting history to how KFC became a Japanese Christmas staple - well, I found it interesting, at least.

I found it entertaining.

But when I finished I didn't have a better understanding of Japan's people, culture, or cuisine. Only a p-hack explained by multi-national marketing.

I understood that very small $ of Japanese people are not Christians and do not celebrate Christmas before; fast food isn't considered cheap terrible food in Japan (at least American fast food chains) and that they value family time together and created/adhered to a tradition of getting families together on a day they normally wouldn't before since perfect excuse to be with family.

That's good enough piece

I'm American and I've never heard of Boston Market for Christmas, and it doesn't exist where I grew up, or in the region, and I would definitely think it was weird if someone wanted that for Christmas. I've never even heard of a franchise chain called Honey Baked. Are you from California or something? Why do people think Americans are a monolith?

Where I'm from everything is closed on Christmas, even Wal-Mart, except the local Chinese takeout, so if you don't want home cooking, that's your one option.

Now, living in a larger area, there are some other limited options but as a seventh generation European descended American I have never known a single family that celebrated Christmas by going to a franchise restaurant

I get your point to an extent, but are you serious with the not knowing Honey Baked Ham? Maybe if your upbringing says no pork, then sure you'd probably not be familiar but I'd at least thought the name would have been at least heard of in school/office/entertainment/etc. Clearly I'm wrong in that.

Not everyone has a large family after growing up and getting holiday meals from "strange" places isn't that strange. Getting a fully cooked holiday meal from the grocery store is a thing, lots of restaurants do this as well. Boston Market often has menu items of turkey/dressing/potatoes/etc that one might think of a traditional holiday meal, so this isn't a stretch for them.

>I get your point to an extent, but are you serious with the not knowing Honey Baked Ham? Maybe if your upbringing says no pork, then sure you'd probably not be familiar but I'd at least thought the name would have been at least heard of in school/office/entertainment/etc. Clearly I'm wrong in that.

You and GP might be talking past each other. GP is talking about "Honey Baked Ham" as a brand name. You might be talking about honey baked ham as a generic food.

I've also spent all my life in the US in vastly different regions, and I've never heard of a franchise called Honey Baked Ham, but I'm aware of honey baked ham as a food product.

An Occam's Razor guess where those honey baked ham food products tend to come from can be confirmed with a google when honey baked ham is what you're bringing to the next party.

Funny thing was, I had never heard of Honey Baked Ham until my first boss told me he used to be a manager at one. The irony there was that he was Jewish and didn't eat pork.

Never heard of Honey Baked (Ham?) brand name before. Grew up in Chicago. I’ve had honey baked ham (lowercase) before, but we always got it from a place in Michigan for the holidays.

I’ve never heard of honey baked ham the food chain.

I've never even heard of a franchise chain called Honey Baked. Are you from California or something?

Not OP, but I’m from the Midwest, and I find your “must be a California thing” hilarious given that we were eating a Honey Baked Ham at least once a year over 40 years ago. Imagine my surprise (and regret that I had since gone vegetarian) when I moved to the west coast and found a Honey Baked Ham store in Bellevue, WA. My wife still gets one once in a great while, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sneak a piece or two.

Anyway, back to the point, looking their website prompts me to ask where one would have to live in the U. S. and not be within an hour’s drive of a store.

Well I grew up in a small town that's not within an hour of much of anything. It was a big deal when we got an Arby's, in the mid aughts. There's a lot of that in the US, even on the east coast. People who live in cities and fly all the time seem to forget about that.

Figure out where it takes a couple hours of driving to get to an international airport and you'll have an idea.

Anyway, I just assume anything people on this site assume everyone has seen is from California, especially if I've never heard of it.

Maybe I've just never been in the market for fast food ham? I still feel like this is a weird example of something Americans commonly do on Christmas.

You should get out more lol

> at least once a year over 40 years ago

From Seattle, same story. Thanksgiving and Christmas always included honey baked ham.

Well Boston Market's food selection is basically American Thanksgiving and Christmas food year round. You can go in and order Turkey or Ham, with sides like mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, vegetable casseroles, etc. Honey Baked ham is a company that does the same thing, it's big for prepared take out meals for the holidays.

So no, standard families in the suburbs may be making their own meals, but there are certainly many people in the US that aren't in that situation. Young people away from home, singles and couples, non traditional families, families that don't have time to cook because of jobs or don't want to. There are many people who get holiday meals from these restaurants.

I'm with bbbbbbddddgbb on this one...

And if you're hitting up Taco Bell on Cinco de Mayo, you're doing it wrong. Home-make 7-layer dip and margaritas (if you're into that kinda thing) is how we rock it in Colorado.

So Nachos Bell Grande and Tequila in the forty ounce Mountain Dew. Those whacky Coloradans.

There are people in japan that don't go to KFC either.

The meme-able phenomenon the OP is talking about is very real and certainly not regional or niche e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/9z7zd6/honey_ba...

An you try to prove that with a link to a Los Angeles reddit?

Should have been qualified with middle-class Americans living in the suburbs.

Growing up in a rural area with Chinese takeout as the only Christmas option is well protected from the pre-conditioned Honey Baked Ham holiday lifestyle.

so the British Broadcasting Company wrote an article about some trivia regarding Japan, so you feel the compulsion to remind everyone that the United States 'is wacky too'.

Problem is that TFA never called anyone wacky; they didn't try to pass judgment at all -- and the United States wasn't ever involved in either side until you injected them into it , unless you blame the country for KFC all together? I don't follow.

Surely there must be some behavior you find strange from Britain ; you know -- the originator of the article -- without trying to loop around the world to drag another country through the mud?

> “Those whacky Japanese” is a perennial category of bus-plunge journalism.

'bus-plunge journalism' isn't only about needlessly expanding nothing stories into pages, it also includes a level of exaggeration. I guess you could say the headline is exaggerated because it's not the entirety of Japan that celebrates with KFC? Feels like yak-shaving, most assume that headlines don't apply universally to entire countries full of people.

> Americans don’t think Honey Baked Ham or Boston Market on a holiday is weird

(as an American I do.. but who cares, let's look at the numbers)

The Honey Baked Ham Company says that it services about 2.5 million customers between Thanksgiving to New Years, meaning that the KFC phenomenon in Japan is significantly stronger, given that TFA states that 3.5 million families purchase KFC for Christmas in Japan.

Smaller time frames, smaller country, more sales; seemingly stronger trend.

This response seems like a bit of an over reaction to me. Why get so concerned about the comparison that adds another country into the mix? How else was this mean to be debated?

Maybe we are all wacky, but clearly Americans are sensitive…

What sounds wackier than the "Japan + Christmas = KFC?"

Even if a person isn't British -- but as noted that's the primary intended audience here. An audience where Kentucky and fried chicken and "Colonel" as an honorary vary between a bit culturally alien to quite so indeed.

The British press, BBC included, has a long history of portraying the otherness of anyone complected unlike a Windsor. I mean the BBC broke Lilibet-naming-gate.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57408163

Now I want the BBC to publish the article “Why Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Taco Bell chalupa combo boxes with a forty ounce no ice Mountain Dew”

As others have mentioned both Honey Baked Ham and Boston Market serve what's come to be Thanksgiving/Christmas meal staples.

Every restaurant is packed for Valentines. It's a big date night. Going out on a date means going out to eat. There's nothing specific to Outback about going there on Valentines, that's just where some portion of people go. Same with Applebees.

And while Americans celebrating Cinco de Mayo is odd, it's not a uniquely Taco Bell thing. Any vaguely Mexican adjacent business will advertise around it.

This mashup of KFC and Christmas is a very brand specific thing unique to that country.

I mean - I don't think this article falls under the category of "those whacky japanese." It was a pretty respectful and borderline poignant article.

Do what I do, and screencap every time the smallest bit of Japan-based trivial junk makes it to the front page of HN.

Your screenshots folder will be filled within a few weeks. ;P

Japan gets more flak because it's physical and historical isolation plus high cultural homogeneity have resulted in unique societal quirks.

Going to western Europe feels like the US. Going to Japan from the west still feels like traveling the world once did. Its unique culture is appreciated worldwide, even from closest neighbors.

They had smartphones almost a decade before we did. They had high speed rail before anyone else . Manga and anime are now worldwide, but they were born in Japan. Kawaii has spread to south Korea and to some extent the west, but it was born in Japan. Hanko instead of signatures is unique. Bowing. Onsen. Sumo. Vending machines. Much of the food... There's countless examples.

We're should be celebrating human uniqueness, Japan is a special place

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