31 posts tagged “japanese customs”
For the past three days we’ve been dining on “osechi ryori”: traditional Japanese New Year’s cuisine. "osechi ryori" is a collection of dried, boiled or pickled seafood, vegetables, and other non-preishable foods; served up in a multi-tiered, lacquer-ware "jyubako" box. It may not sound very appetizing, but the foods in "osechi-ryori" are quite tasty, and each one has symbolic meaning. Eating those foods is supposed to bring you happiness, prosperity and progeny. Traditionally, "osechi riyori" was also designed for convenience. In the days before refrigerators, homemakers wanted to be able to prepare a lot of food for the whole family and relatives coming to visit, before the New Year's holiday began, that would keep for several days, and could be served and stored in the same container. That way they didn't have to cook and clean so many dishes over the holidays, and they could spend more time relaxing with their family. Even though we have refrigerators nowadays, we like most other families in Japan continue the tradition of eating and serving "osechi ryori". However, few people continue to make the more than a dozen dishes that go into "osechi ryori" from scratch anymore. Like us, most families buy the foods at the supermarket, and then just arrange them in their "jyubako" box on New Year's Day. Or a lot of people like Aki's parents place an order at a restaurant or department store for a ready made "jyubako" full of "osechi ryori" to be delivered to their door by courier on New Year's Eve. The foods in “osechi ryori” are traditionally eaten together with a kind of soup, called “ozoni”.
Although I didn’t have to work yesterday, it was a school day for both Amy and Aki, and we scheduled our Christmas facilities around the school day. We got up a little earlier than usual this morning, so that we would have time to open our presents before Amy and Aki had to rush off to school. Amy was thrilled to get some new clothes for her Lica-chan doll, and the toy washing machine to pretend do Lica’s laudry in. Amy had be wanting that washing machine for months, and had been talking about it and Santa Claus together in the same sentences a lot, all month long. No matter what the occasion, and no matter how many she already has laying unused in the closet, Aki always wants a new handbag or a new pair of shoes. Needless to say, Aki was really happy to receive the bag I gave her. My neckties have gradually been getting embarrassingly ratty, so I was glad to find two new ones under the tree. Once everything had been unwrapped, there was just enough time for a simple breakfast, and then Aki and Amy were off to school. On the way home from school, Amy and Aki went to the nearby KFC to pick up our fried chicken dinner. Since there are no turkeys in Japan, and imported ones are too expensive and hard to come by for most people, most Japanese families that choose to celebrate Christmas dinner with a Christmas Party Barrel from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Each barrel comes with 15 pieces of chicken, a salad, a cake and Royal Copenhagen look-alike Christmas plate. Biscuits and coleslaw cost extra. Now that we’re living together with Aki’s parents, we invited them to come upstairs and join us for a traditional Japanese Christmas dinner. It was finger licking good, and a lot of fun.
I went to the bank today to stamp the loan agreement for my housing mortgage, and open a new bank account there. I couldn’t just sign the papers, because like in some other parts of the Orient signatures are not legally recognized here in Japan. Instead, legal documents must be stamped in red ink, with one’s personal seal, which bears the person’s name written in Chinese characters. In Chinese it's known as a "chop", and in Japanese it's known as a "hanko".
If you've ever seen a Chinese or Japanese painting, you'll usually see a square, red stamp on one side of the picture, with the artist's name on it, instead of the artist's signature as you would see on a painting in western cultures. Artists, public officials and companies usually use square seals, while common people generally use round ones. Personal seals come in different sizes, and are made of different materials, such as ivory, bull's horn, marble, crystal and wood. Clerks and manual laborers often use a plastic or a rubber seal, to stamp memos from their boss to show that they've read them, or use them on a checklist of chores, to show who did which of the staff's work responsibilities. However, more formal, legalistic documents require more formal, extravagant seals, which stamp your name in more elegant, stylized Chinese calligraphy. Today I had two bring two different personal seals to the bank. The larger of the two had my name written in beautiful, extremely formal-looking, and almost unreadable Chinese characters, that are all connected to each other like cursive handwriting would in English. The smaller one contained my name written in a different style of simpler, less formal-looking, unconnected characters, with some space left between each one. I have four different personal seals, which are made of four different materials, and contain my name written in four different writing styles. Which one I use depends on the formality of the situation.
To learn more about the history, use and different types of personal seals in Asia, please click on the links below.
The History and Usage of Personal Seals in Asia
A Seal Making Shop's Home Page
I don’t have many clients to visit this week, and the office I visited last night was so empty and quiet, I could easily hear the sounds of the traditional “taiko” drum beat of a Bon Odori (dance for the dead) at a temple in the next district. We’re now in the middle of “Obon”: the Japanese festival of the dead. Although it's sometimes compared to Halloween, ther's no trick or teating, and it's more like the Mexican El Dia de los Muertos; but it’s not quite as colorful, and there’s no scull-shaped candy, or other traditional food, for that matter. During Obon, people travel back to their ancestral homelands, to clean the family graves, and to make offerings to the spirits of family members who have passed away. People make offerings of food, and may even put out horse-like figures, made out of an eggplant with toothpick legs, for the ghosts to ride while they're visiting earth during the festival. To make sure that the spirits find there way back to earth, families light paper lanterns at their homes to guide them. To celebrate their return, people gather at public squares at night, to dance in a circle around a large taiko. When it's time for the spirits to return to the land of the dead, traditionally people take floating lanterns down to a nearby river, to cast them off toward the sea, and the eventually the edge of the earth. To read, more about the history, traditions, sights and sounds of Obon, click on the link below.
Stories and Information about the Japanese of Festival of Obon
Today in train stations, shopping centres, community centres, and just about everywhere lots of people meet, one can see stalks of bamboo, decorated with stars and colourful strips of paper, in celebration of "Tanabata": the Star Festival. According to Chinese mythology, two lovers; represented in the night sky by the stars Vega and Altair, are kept separated from each other for 364 days a year, and they are only allowed to meet and pursue their forbidden love once a year, in the sky on the seventh night of the seventh month. People believe that not only can the two lovers have their wish to be together granted tonight, but that the wishes of mere mortals may be granted on this night, too, if they write their wish down on a strip of paper, and attach it to a stalk of bamboo. Since being adopted by Japan more than 1200 years ago, the Japanese have put some of their own distinctive touches on this originally Chinese festival. For more information about the history and culture associated with Tanabata celebrations in Japan, click on the first link below. To listen to a traditional Tanabat song, click on the second link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata
http://web.mit.edu/jpnet/holidays/Jul/tanabata.mov
Every May 5th, people in Japan celebrate the people who represent our future: children. Originally May 5th was the day of the Boy's Festival, in response to the girls' Festival of the Dolls on March third, but a few decades ago, the holiday went co-ed. However, there is not much for girls on this day. Families with male children fly carp streamers in front of their homes, and display miniature samurai helmets and armor inside their homes. The carp streamers thrashing around in the wind are supposed to symbolize parents' wishes that their sons grow up to be strong like carp, which are strong enough to swim upstream against strong currents. The helmets and armor that are put on display, are supposed to represent parents' wish that their male offspring become brave and powerful like the samurai of old. While the parents are busy decorating, the kids are free to play. All kids, boys or girls enjoy running around with origami paper Samurai helmets on their heads, and swatting each other with pretend, paper swords. Young and old, male or female, everybody also enjoys eating sweet rice cakes called Kashiwa-mochi.
Traditionally, the first Monday of April each year is the day when everyone wears a blue suit to work. It's also the first day of the Japanese fiscal year, and the first official day of work for college and university graduates. The traditional Japanese costume of corporate culture is a navy blue suit, with a white dress shirt, and a dark tie for men, or a dark-colored scarf for women. Company freshmen, or "freshers" as they're called here, all go to work in their newly purchased, nearly identical navy blue suits. For many young people, it may only be the third or fourth time for them to wear a suit, and you'll see them tugging at their uncomfortable shirt collars. They also be fiddling nervously with their silver and turquoise rings, and be trying to figure out whether their rubber bracelets are supposed to go over or under the cuffs of a dress shirt.
Everyone else in the company will be wearing navy blue suits,too, at their company's' induction ceremony for new employees. In addition to being the defacto uniform of Japanese business, the navy blue suit is also the customary clothing for ceremonies in Japan.
When boarding a train to or from work on April 1st, or when walking down the street on your way to a restaurant for lunch, its easy to you feel as if you've been engulfed in a sea of navy blue suits.
I had to go into the office yesterday and conduct a training seminar for new employees. The trainees were really nice people, who were easy to work with, and time passed quickly. While the trainees were busy working on various tasks, I was able to enjoy the beautiful, seasonal view from the conference room at head office, which is located in front of the outer moat of the old Edo Castle, and the current Imperial Palace. The moat is lined with cherry trees, which are now covered with pure white blossoms. The unusually high temperatures, between 20 and 22 degrees, caused the trees to bloom about a week earlier than usual, and the peak day for chery blossom viewing was supposedly yesterday. When the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, a lot of companies grind to a halt, as workers and management alike, meet under the nearest cherry tree, for an impromptu picnic; complete with beer, rice wine, Japanese fried chicken nuggets and rice balls. Because it rained all day yesterday, workers weren’t able to have their traditional company picnic under the cherry trees. But since it wasn’t a regular workday, the strip of parkland along the moat in front of our office building, wasn’t really crowded, so during our lunch break today, we were able to have a nice picnic under the trees. Of course the libations were absent, but there were still plenty of blossoms on the trees to enjoy, and make up for having to work on a Saturday.
The coming of the Spring Equinox is the reason for today’s national holiday in Japan. However, it’s easy to understand how one might think that spring had already arrived more than a month ago. Yellow allspice flowers started blooming on the mountains on the outskirts of Tokyo, at the beginning of February, and not long afterward plum trees starting flowering across much of the country. Cities and towns with large plum tree orchards usually have plum blossom-viewing festivals at the beginning of March, but all the flowers had already fallen off the trees before the end of February. The cherry trees which usually bloom at the beginning of April, started opening about a week ago in some parts of the country. I bought a new winter coat in November, but I’ve only worn it three times since then, because it’s been so warm. Daytime temperatures in Tokyo have been between 12 and 16 degrees for the last five weeks, and they are expected to rise to 19 degrees within the next few days.
Traditionally on this day, people visit the graves of their ancestors, to say prayers for their departed relatives, and to clean off their tombstones. However, in modern times, shopping seems to have become a more popular way to celebrate the coming of spring. On the other hand, one Spring and Autumn Equinox tradition that appears to have gotten stronger over the years, is the custom of eating a sweet dumpling made of glutinous rice; called “ohagi”. Rice is pressed by hand into the shape of a ball, and then is covered with sweet red bean paste, soybean powder, black sesame seeds, or powdered green tea. They may not sound all that appetizing, but “ohagi” taste similar to rice or tapioca pudding, and go quite nicely with a warn cup of green tea. I’m looking forward to doing just that a little later.
To see what “ohagi” dumplings look like, and to see how they are made, please click on the link below.
March 14th in Japan is pay-back time for men. Exactly one month to the day after Valentine's Day, men in Japan give something white to the women who gave them presents on Valentine's Day. In exchange for the "tomo choco" (friendship chocolate), and "giri choco" (obligatory chocolate) that they gave to friends and co-workers on Valentine’s Day, women can expect to get small, moderately-priced white boxes of regular or white chocolate, cookies, or more practical, non-edible things like handkerchiefs. However, in exchange for heartfelt gifts of “honme choco” given to love interests, expectations are much higher. The quality and value of the gift a woman receives from a man on White Day, will help her judge the depth of a man’s feelings toward her.
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