Well, you're right and wrong. See, they celebrate Thanksgiving every November in Japan too, but the day is called Labor Thanksgiving Day.
Sure it's a "little different" in Japan, but it's essentially the same thing; in America, we give thanks for everything that we have, in Japan, they give thanks to all the hard work that everyone has done over the year. In America, we celebrate by eating vulgar amounts of food, watch football on TV and plan which store we are going to camp out for the best deals on Black Friday; in Japan, they celebrate with small festivals and school children usually make pictures for their local policemen. The two holidays are celebrated about the same time too, in America it is the fourth Thursday of November and in Japan, they celebrate every November 23rd.
They obviously stole Thanksgiving Day from us as a bit of "Americana", right? You'd be wrong there too. Very wrong. The Japanese started celebrating their Thanksgiving a little bit before we did....about 2,500 years ago! The day has its roots that date back to around 600 BC and was called Niiname-sai. During this festival they celebrated a year's hard work and the Emperor would dedicate the harvest to the spirits.
It all sounds kind of cool and very traditional, but it can't hold a candle to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!
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