34 posts tagged “japanese traditions”

Each year, it’s getting harder and harder to see people wearing kimono in public. They’ve always been hard to put on, and over the years, even a simple kimono has become fairly expensive. Nowadays, there are few people you are willing to go to the trouble and expense to wear them. For most people, the kimono has become something that one might wear once or twice in one’s life, on formal occasions, kind of like a tuxedo or a ball gown would be in western countries. One such occasion for wearing a kimono, has always been Coming of Age Day.

The first Monday after New Year's Day is the national holiday, Coming of Age Day, on which 20-year olds are invited to attend a ceremony at the city hall in their hometowns, to welcome them into adult society. Those attending the ceremonies usually dress up in formal wear, which until recently meant wearing a kimono. For many average Japanese people, Coming of Age Day is one of only a handful of chances they get to wear kimono. However, due to Japan's low birthrate, the population is shrinking, so there are fewer 20-year-olds each year to participate in the ceremonies, and few of them are interested in going to listen to some speeches by some old politicians who are out of touch with today's youth culture, and receive a small gift that they don't really need or want. Also, among those who do choose to attend such ceremonies, the wearing of western-style is becoming more and more popular each year. Sadly, I saw only a handful of young women wearing kimono today, and I didn’t even one young man in kimono.

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”.

In keeping with Japanese tradition, we all went to our local shrine today, to pray for happiness and prosperity in the new year, to get some lucky charms, and to get your fortune told for the next 12 months. To get your fortune, you shake an octagonal box until one of numerous long, thin sticks comes out of a small hole in one end of the box, and you read the number written on that stick. Then you get the piece of paper with a number on it that corresponds to the number on the stick you had drawn earlier. Written on the paper is your fortune concerning finances, travel, relationships, health, and a number of other things. This year, my fortune was really positive, and Amy's and Aki’s were just alright.

After reading one’s fortune, people often buy lucky charms from the shrine, that are supposed to bolster their luck in certain areas, and help protect them from harm. We got some road safety stickers for our bicycles, and some small, embroidered pouches, called “omamori-bukuro”. Each pouch contains a piece of paper with a prayer for a particular purpose written on it. I got one that’s supposed to help me more successful at work, and Amy got one that’s supposed to bring her success at school.

Then it was time to for a snack. In and around most major shrines on festival days there are a number of stands and stalls set-up to sell things. They give the normally quite shrines the atmosphere of a carnival or a county fair without the farm animals and rides. You can usually find stalls selling things like spices, calendars and toys to take home with you, and lots of things to nibble on while you're visiting the shrine, like candied apples, grilled seafood and barbecued shish-kabobs. They also sell hot and cold alcoholic beverages and soft drinks. Amy wouldn’t let us go home without buying her a big bag of white cotton candy, in a bag decorated with pictures of Hello Kitty on it.

Last night, Aki’s parents invited us downstairs to enjoy New Year’s Eve with them. After a really nice grilled eel dinner we sat down in front of the TV to watch the annual Red and White Show on TV. It’s a singing competition with a battle of the sexes theme. Each year the country’s best singers in just about every musical genre, form male and female teams. Each team tries to out sing and our perform each other during a four hour live concert of that year’s hit songs. Watching the program every New Year's Eve with one's family, is a tradition in many homes throughout the country, and nobody really cares which team wins. The audience is true winner.

Another New Year’s Eve tradition is eating buckwheat noodles (soba), just before midnight. The long, brown noodles are a symbol of longevity, and it is believed that eating them just before midnight on New Year's Eve, will help prolong your life for another year. We enjoyed a steaming hot bowl of noodles in broth at around 11:30, as we listened to the ringing of Buddhist temple bells Starting just before midnight on New Year's Eve, and continuing on into the wee hours of the morning, the bell at each temple is rung 108 times, to remind us all of the 108 different types of sins, and warm us not to fall into temptation in the new year.

Starting in November, when the temperatures start to dip into the low teens, seemingly every second person, everywhere you go, is wearing a white surgical mask. Colds and the flu virus spread like wildfire here. Because everywhere is so crowded, you’re never more than a few centimeters away from someone, and it’s hard to escape being breathed on. Out of courtesy, cold sufferers put on surgical masks when they go out in public, to reduce the risk of giving their colds to others, Many of those who aren’t coughing and sniffling put on masks to protect themselves from the inconsiderate sick people who don’t have masks on. When I first came to Japan more than a dozen years ago, seeing so many people walking the streets and riding the trains with surgical masks on, was surreal, but now I’m used to it. Since catching bronchitis four weeks ago, I’ve had to start wearing one whenever I’m around other people, which is pretty much all of the time.

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.

There was a flea market in the next neighborhood today. I probably never would have know about it, if it weren’t for the “Chindonya” that passed me by on the way to the station this morning. “Chindonya” are traditional street performers, who act as walking, musical advertisements. Businesses hire them to publicize new store openings or sales. They usually consist of three members, but sometimes have as many as four or as few as one person. They  walk around the neighborhood of the business that hired them, wearing gaudily colorful clothing and clown-like make-up, and loudly playing jazzy music, on drums, cymbals, clarinets and sometimes on saxophones.  They’re so loud and colorful that you can’t help but notice them, the advertising placard they carry, and the general location of the business that they’re publicizing. The name “Chindonya” is an onomatopoeic expression. In Japanese, “chin” is the sound that cymbals make, “don” is the sound a drum makes, and “ya” is the suffix attached to the end of the names of stores or businesses.

On clear September nights like this, when the harvest moon looks bigger, brighter and more beautiful than usual, people take time out to celebrate that beauty, with simple, family moon viewing parties. When westerners look at a full moon, we see a man's face looking back at us. But the Japanese see a rabbit, pounding rice into rice paste cakes, with a wooden mallet. Looking at a rabbit making rice paste cakes, usually makes Japanese people want to eat rice paste cakes, so at this time of year, confectioners, supermarkets and even convenience stores, all sell small, round, rice paste dumplings, made from rice paste cakes. People usually washi down the rice cakes with some sake (rice wine) as the gaze at the beauty of the harvest moon.

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