And underneath the stadium, behind Namba station, close to the Hard Rock cafe, was one of the 2 best used manga shops in the whole city. The place was a mini-mall of at least 8 or 10 small used manga dealers all sharing 1 very large space, and each had their own little subsection. They often had complete sets of used manga series on sale for a great price. It was always my first stop after arriving in Namba station.

I was sad to hear that the stadium was torn down, since that means the manga shop is gone too. I wonder if they all closed down or if some or all of them moved to new locations?

Thanks for that bit of research. I was thinking it was something that had perhaps started after the war.

Was イヴ even the same back in the 60s? :D Mother-in-law was saying it wasn`t that way until the bubble, so she "missed out" on the potential romantic possibilities.

Your mother-in-law is right and I like her sense of humor! That indecent "new custom" for the Eve is entirely the relics of the bubble period. Before the bubble, Christmas had been a more family-oriented event. It was a three-generation event for many of us. It's now a two-person one.

I wasn't expecting anything, sorry if that came across as rude. I really just wanted to know how far chocolate eggs went around the world, nothing to do with the religious or holiday bit..

Don't worry, SHADOW. I know you too well to not know you meant no harm.
I was only being sarcastic.

I`m guessing you had quite a nice childhood to be celebrating it back in the 60s - according to my husband, they never even mentioned Christmas where he was growing up (during the 80s). He only knew of the event from KFC commercials. Apparently he asked his parents if they were going to have a tree with presents under it one year, and they told him to go out and climb the mountain behind the house and he could see as many trees as he wanted and pick up anything he found underneath of them - for free.
Another year he pestered his dad who brought him home a fish with a ribbon tied around it. :D

I'm a little bit surprised to hear this. It may be a regional thing, then.

We had a Christmas tree for as long as I can remember. Kids in my neighborhood got to go to a few Christmas parties every year because the cram school and the Abacus school held theirs a few days before Christmas so that we could still party at home on the 24th. One of my uncles, who lived near us, was a Yamazaki dealer and on every Christmas Eve, he had his garage packed with hundreds of boxes with Christmas cakes in them for his customers to come and pick up. By age 8 or 9, I was already hooked on the fake non-alcohol champaign by Fujiya.

That was Christamas in the 60's in Nagoya. I graduated from elementary in '71.

No matter what you've heard, Easter derives from Pagan tradition. The rabbit symbolizes fertility, and spring is a time of new life.

It has nothing to do with Christianity.

Thought I'd just...put that in. >_>