Sunday, February 25, 2007

Japanese Culture

I finally feel my life has returned to somewhat of a routine since returning from America a month ago. I suffered from a really bad case of jetlag when i got back to Japan. It was much worse coming back to Japan than it was while being in America. In the madness of trying to get my life back to normal, I fell pathetically behind on my blog. I am trying to catch it all up but a lot of things have started to slip my mind, unfortunately. I am trying to hilite things that I don't want to forget 5 years down the road, while at the same time keeping it interesting for my readers.

This entry is dedicated to Japanese culture, of things that I have not talked about but I think are interesting to those who don't know much about Japan. Remember, I'm trying to educate everyone about Japan, too. Grassroots internationalization within inaka or rural Japan and via the internet for people who are interested in my life here.


Nengajo.

Nengajo in Japan is similiar to the Western culture of sending out holiday cards. Sure, a while ago, it may have originally been only for Christmas, but as times have changes, acceptance more widely spread, we have changed many of our Christmas greetings to the all encompassing phrase of "Happy Holidays". Nengajo is basically a "Happy New Year's" greeting. All nengajo are held at the post office until New Year's day where you will receive an influx of nengajo all on that day.

Nengajo is the size of a post card and well, basically that is what it resembles - a postcard. Japanese people send Nengajo to those people who have been kind to you over the last 12 months. It is believed to have existed since the 11th century; but with the introduction of postcards in 1873 - the custom of using them to send nengajo spread quickly. You buy the specific nengajo postcard at the post office. Many people hand make theirs, but with the introduction of computers, many of the ones that I received were made via a computer. Additionally, I received a few that had pictures of their kids on them as well, reminding me of holiday cards from home. I saw many from my co-workers - who had piles of 100's - and leafing through them - I saw many pictures were also of major events in the past year. For example, wedding photos, new houses, new cars. etc.

Japanese people follow the zodiac sign from the Chinese zodiac. Therefore, as the new year changes, the animal of that year does as well. This year - is the year of the pig or wild boar as the direct translation from Japanese into English. This means - that almost all the nengajo had some form of the pig on the picture side of it. It's also very common
to include the new year - so this year was 2007. Other popular things to include are:

kotobuki - a general phrase that wishes a person well
shinshun - New Year
gasho - celebration of the New Year
geishun - greeting of the New Year
kingashinnen - Wishing you a very happy New Year
kyogashinnen - Hoping that you have a very happy New Year
akemashita omedeto gozaimasu - Happy New Year!


You can buy many stickers, stamps, and decorations to make your nengajo with all over Japan, usually beginning in November. I made mine with Katie and Akira and sent them out before going to Korea. It is a fun tradition and cool to look at. There are also some rules that if someone in your immediate family dies, you send out a card to inform that you will not be sending nengajo this year. If someone in your immediate family dies, it is like passing on the bad luck of your household to send nengajo to other familie's households. I think it is also customary not to send nengajo to that household as well - but I do not remember.


Then there is the otoshidama lottery. On the address side of the postcards is a pre-printed lottery number. If you receive a nengajo with a matching lottery number,. you can receive prizes from the post office. Some top prizes one can receive include a Hawaiian holiday, a holiday in Japan, a laptop computer, a DVD recorder and home theater system, and a digital SLR camera and printer. I don't know if I had matching numbers because I can't read the newspaper nor understand the news.

This year, 2007, around 3.79 billion special postcards for nengajo were printed. That's around 30 for every man, woman and child in Japan.



Setsubun.

Setsubun literally means division of seasons. It is the day that marks the end of winter. This year in 2007 - it was celebrated on February 3rd, which was a Saturday. On the evening on this day, people throw roasted soybeans inside and outside their houses with a scream of oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi! meaning Devil's out! Good luck in! As the beans are thrown, it is believed good luck is invited in and bad luck is driven out. It is also customary to eat as many beans as one's age. It is a superstition that it is a charm again bad luck.

During Setsubun, children throw roasted beans around their house to ward off evil spirits and other misfortune. In many families, an adult might put on a devil's mask and approach the children. The devil is hit with beans until he leaves.

I was able to learn about setsubun in a fun setting - at an Elementary School visit on the Friday before. I got to see exactly how it is celebrated. It seems that almost all schools do this - as my other Western teachers viewed this in their schools as well, and I saw evidence that it was done at my Junior High School's as well.

I was teaching 4th, 5th and 6th grade at this school. My first time seeing it was with the 5th grade class. The students all write out the things about them they want to change on a piece of paper. It seems that - they write things like "last year I was selfish, this year I want to share more" or "I want to be more kind" or "I fight with my brother too much". From what I gathered through the weak translation is that the student's wrote out the "devil's" inside of them that they want to "drive out". Then, the teacher's at the school made this HUGE cardboard devil thing and attached by tape, all the student's "devil papers" to it. So, at first, all the 5th graders taped their devil paper onto the cardboard cut out of the devil. Afterwards, the teacher leaves the classroom as each student receives heaps of peanuts from me.

Into the classroom jumps a devil! (the teacher dressed up as one). He was wearing some outfit, a mask of a devil and a helmet. As soon as the "devil" entered their classroom, the kids were literally pelting the devil with their peanuts. When I say pelting, I mean PELTING! I can see why he wore a helmet! I couldn't stop laughing. If they were just throwing peanuts at him, it would have been funny, but the fact that they were literally pelting him as hard as they could was too much for me to handle, I was laughing hysterically. The teacher then hid behind the cardboard cut out until the kids ran out and started picking the nuts up off the floor to pelt him. At this point, he left the room and returned as a teacher. The students then pick up all the peanuts off the ground and we ate as many peanuts as our age.

This pattern repeated for sixth grade, in the exact same way as it had for 5th. Fourth grade was a little bit different. The teacher didn't have the cardboard cut out and his outfit was slightly more different. The kids hung their devil paper's on the blackboard. The teacher dressed up like a ninja. He was in an all black, tight outfit with a black skirt going over his black leotard. He wore a curly, blonde wig, with large sunglasses (to protect his eyes) and came running in like this with a sword for one hand and a hook for the other. Same story - the kids pelted the crap out of him until they returned to their seats to eat their peanuts. At this point, he suggested "why don't we go scare other grades together?" Of course! Anything to disrupt the normalcy of a regular school day full of flying peanuts!

I put on his wig, sunglasses and took his sword and hook. He remained in his ninja outfit. The first place we went to was third grade - on the count of three, we opened up the door and ran through the classroom screaming. The kids went CRAZY! Then as abruptly as we interrupted, we ran out. Next stop, second grade. The kids had actually just finished doing their bean throwing - with their classroom. We ran in - where we were actually pelted by peanuts in this visit. Second grade took this visit by the most surprise. Last, was first grade - where we ran in unannounced and unexpectedly. We also then went into the teacher's room - where we ran around and I actually threw the peanut's at the head teacher and Vice Principal. I ran into the Principal's office and showed him the havoc I was creating in his school, before the 4th grade teacher and I ran out of the teacher's room.

It was a success. So good, that I was invited to be the devil for first grade's real bean throwing ceremony. Thus, myself and the special ed teacher ran in and we were pelted really hard by the peanuts. They really hurt!

Setsubun is fun. I really wish it did mark the end of winter. Alas, my house is still cold.

Valentine's Day...

As with most Western holidays, I receive a lot of questions from home about how Japanese people celebrate it; if they do at all. Twice today I was asked about how V-day is spent in Japan. It is celebrated, but a little bit differently than at home. In Japan, on V- day - only women give presents to the men. It doesnt' work both ways. There is a day - exactly one month after V-day - March 14th, where it is expected for men to give gifts to women - this day is called White Day.

I did see some remnants that V-day is celebrated here. If you went to stores, you could find candy making things, valentine's cards, decorations, etc. However, whereas in America, in Elementary School, all students make bags or boxes and write out Valentine's to everyone in the class - that isn't done here. At home, I remember selling and buying flowers for friends and "crushes" in middle and high school. However, here, I didn't see much of any thing going on.

I even asked my student's on Valentine's day if they knew that it WAS Valentine's Day. It seemed that they had forgotten - but once I told them, they were kind of like "oh yea!" So, yea, Valentine's Day is celebrated here - but it's not such a huge thing like in America. Which is good, because I wish I had a certain Valentine this year, too.

What's your Blood Type?

One week ago, I went shopping with Yumie' and her two sisters in Sendai, the big city nearby. It was my first time meeting her sisters! How cute they were! They remind me a lot of my sisters - and it was very natsukashii for me to be with them. We went to dinner at an "all - Asia" restaurant. This restaurant offered foods from all over Asia. Yumie is the oldest. Then there is her middle sister - Marie' and the youngest Hiroe. Hiroe speaks some English and Marie' speaks none.

I'm speaking with Marie' in Japanese when I am positive what she asked me was "What's your blood type?" However, trying to figure out the meaning behind this question, I look at her quizzically and said nani? or what? Like, why in the world would she be asking me my blood type? She said it again! I looked at Yumie' at this point and confirmed in English what I was sure was just being asked of me in Japanese.

I responded wakaranai or I don't know. Then, I looked at her and Yumie' in a very confused manner. It was here, that for the first time, I learned that it is very common for Japanese people to ask this. It is kind of like how we put personality types and lover matches in the hands of our Zodiac sign. It is Japanese custom to categorize personalities and the such to the type of blood a person has. It is apparently a popular question, but that was the first time I had been asked that here, over 6 months into living in Japan.

According to my favorite information receiving site, wikipedia. com,
According to Nomi's theory, those with type A blood tend to be reserved, punctual, and law-abiding, while type Os tend to be more outgoing, passionate, and driven; it is for this reason they are often considered "warrior" spirits[1]. Type Bs are said to be loners and self-sufficient, as "hunters," while ABs are said to be serious and solitary by nature.

The whole article here


Mom, if you read this, do you know my blood type? I don't.

That is the culture bit for you.

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the latest news with me? I bought tickets to Cambodia! I'm going for 10 days from April 26th to May 6th. Yaayy! I am excited.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

i really enjoyed both of these blogs sara!! i always loving hearing about the interesting people you meet on your journey, its very exciting! i also found it interesting about the blood type thing. Especially since I'm really into astrology, but i don't know my blood type either, or how i would even find out my blood type!

Lisa Marie said...

Sara- I am blood type O so i guessing you mostly are also....