Hand-made me

Perhaps I was extraordinarily daft during my time in America, but I never noticed such craftiness on this level. One of the things I super-love-love about Japan, is the amount of craft fairs they have.

I can find at least 2 craft fairs going on every week here. They really love their handmade stuff!
These events normally take place at shrines and parks and are normally pretty massive. You can find all kinds of things there: baked goods, jewelry, fabric crafts (clothes, bags, pencil cases...), leather crafts (bags, shoes, notebooks), you can find weaving and knitting goods, paper crafts, original post cards, glass and pottery creations, things for fun and things that are more casual every day usage. I love the huge variety they have. I normally go get a postcard and some homemade treat at everyone I go to and just walk around mostly. I look for idea for stuff I can make myself. My favorite has been the bike bag. I saw it at one craft fair and knew that my bike basket was on its way out. And therefore had a fresh new and much cheaper idea for myself than buying an entire new basket.
If you are living in the kansai area, it is certainly worth it to check out Kansai Scene if you are looking for a craft fair anywhere in the Kansai area. Otherwise I would pay attention to the posters and flyers of where you live. I find a good many adverts on trains and at the stations nearest to them. Also if you get into it, you might find out that there are monthly or bi monthly ones that fall on a certain day of the month and will happen regardless of weekend or no.

Burn Baby Burn!

This weekend will be very bright and warm for those who are attending any shrines.

Dondo yaki (どんど焼き) is held around the 15th of January ( which might I add used to be the day that the Coming of Age ceremony was held on until the year 2000)and is typically on a Sunday . On this day people bring their New Years decorations such as their  shimekazari to shrines to have them burned. At this time they will also burn any of the bad fortunes that are tied around the temple. Symbolically this is seen as breaking with the past and progressing with the new year. It is also seen to bring luck in the new year, as well as to send off toshigami. Toshigami are thought to be deities related to bringing in the new year or also spirits of ancestors passed. Some people have alters in their home where the toshigami reside until the New Year. For the remainder of the year they will adorn the alter with fresh fruits and such as presents for the toshigami.

Often when the burning is in process mochi is given out like marshmellows for roasting. This idea behind this is to sweeten your mouth so that you only say sweet and nice things in the new year.

Happy New Year from Japan!

Happy shogatsu everyone!
New Years (正月) is a special time in Japan and the celebrations can last up to 10 days.

One of the special things about New Years in Japan is the sending of nengajo, or New Years cards. These are mailed from mid to late December so that they reach their destination on the right day: January 1st, of course. However, if a family member has died in the previous year, the decorations are removed from the home and cards are sent out to tell people not to send them any cards the following year. These cards are more like postcards than the hallmark cards you see in America and often feature the zodiac of the coming year (this coming year is dragon) along with well wishings of health and fortune


Another important feature of the majority of homes in the new year is a type of straw decoration that features a kind of leaf and a mandarin orange called shimekazari. These adornments are not only prevalent to houses but also temples and shrines as well as departments stores, which are typically more fashioned like kadomatsu.

shimekazari

kadomatsu

January 1st is quite literally rung in on December 31st with the ringing of a bell 108 times to ward off the evil spirits at the local Buddhist temples. A particularly famous location to see this is at a temple in Kyoto called Chion-in. This day is called omisoka (New Years Eve) and the accompanying ritual is called osiouji, translated as "the big clean-up." This is also done in homes in the days preceding the New Year; homes are thoroughly cleaned and many things which are not often used or have grown old are thrown out. It is a long arduous process with which "spring cleaning" does not really compare. Once accomplished, shimekazari are often hung at the door frames of the clean homes. This is to represent purity and to ward off evil. Kadomatsu are also a representation of the New Year and are typically festive and ornate decorations of bamboo which are often seen at entrances to establishments to bring good fortune with the New Year.

Starting at midnight following these events, is perhaps any given shrine experiences its most popular day as people flock to it for hatsumode, to cleanse themselves as well as pray for the new year and receive their fortunes for the new year. Fortunes are obtained by either a random drawing of personal choice or via lotto numbers written on sticks that are received from a wooden barrel (you shake the barrel until a stick comes out and you show the stick and number written on it to a monk who then gives you your fortune).

Ok So you either draw from the first box or use the barrels next to the man in the second picture to get your fortune in the third picture. This piece of paper unravels to tell you pretty much everything you want to know in the coming year: love life, house, money, lawyers, health, car stuff and there is more too!

However! if its bad then...

you leave it at the shrine to later be burned! So that you can get rid of your misfortune.

Another interesting activity at shrines is the casting off of arrows. Red and gold decorative arrows are purchased at this time during the year. The arrow is said to bring fortune. The following year at the same time you leave the arrow at the temple and purchase a new one.

Above is the casting off of the old years arrow and the purchasing of a new one

Another New Years decoration to appease the deceased and other spirits

Food is also a very important feature of the New Year and many custom dishes are prepared and eaten at this time to bring a variety of influences for the new year (such as health and prosperity... )

One of the things I was actually able to make and sample for myself, was a type of fish based soup that had lots of vegetable and root based ingredients called ozoni. Another was a mochi soup. My third year students at my JHS made a sweet red bean mochi soup that I found really delicious! Also common are New Years bentos, to welcome in the New Year with a large special meal. It typically contains a large variety of things and is quite a bit more expensive than any normal bento. Finally on the 7th day of the New Year (January 7th) a type of porridge called 7 herb porridge is eaten. This dish is called jinjitsu.

 

New Years bento, New Years soup, 7 herb porridge

Lastly, this is a special holiday for children. They receive something called otoshidama, which loosely translates to gifts of money or presents that are usually given by the elderly to their grandchildren. This feature of the New Year is a bit reminiscent of the Chinese custom where on lunar new year they present children with a red envelope filled with a large sum of money.

Aki Matsuri

 

I think one of the most associated aspects of the word matsuri is all the food booths and game areas. But one of the greater more massive features of it, is the giant elaborate wooden carts that weigh 4 tons and are mobilized by the shear force of man. Here at the Wakayaman town of Aki, matsuri that is no different.

These wooden carts are called mikoshi and it is believed that the gods temporarily reside in them while they are transported around a city or to new shrines that will serve as their home. These are often seen as portable shrines and are sacred. Every year lots of money is used to furnish and decorate the mikoshi. Since they are so elaborate and so much time and thousands of dollars goes into making them, they get a lot of use out of them; they are used year to year, for possibly up to 20 years or until they acquire enough money to build a new one. You may wonder what happens to some of the decor that falls off in the stunts that they do, they simply pick up the pieces and glue them right back on for the next years festival.

Here in Wakayama you may notice a few rather similar aspects about the three mikoshi here, They all have a heavy golden rope that weighs a fair amount and costs just as much mantled around the cart, called shimenawa, as well as the folded spirit paper called shide.

Up on the cart are the leaders yelling encouragements and waving their fans.

During the matsuri these carts are carried by dozens of men and women, who are decked out in the uniform of their team. The leaders sport fans and towels and support the runners, yelling 'Soyra!' as a chant of encouragement. Occasionally seen at these festivals is the hitting of the runners with these fans. At first I thought this was friendly brutality, but later learned it is an act called 'charging'.

Here are boys and girls decked out in their teams uniform.

White pants, white cloth shoes and a type of (usually) black jacket with their team image.

Girls often do up their hair in cornrows for the event.

At this Wakayama matsuri, the three carts on display at the time run in a small, tight circle dragging the cart to the crowds enjoyment. After an uncertain amount of times or laps they break and ready themselves for the big important event of the festival. They have to drag their 4-5 ton cart up a set of 5 stairs into the shrine center. This is no easy task.They have their long line of runners ready themselves with half of them already up the stairs in order to get the leverage needed to propel the cart up them. It is the task of all three carts to accomplish this. What happens if they fail? Well I don't know!

Here is a picture of the shrine and the sand bags that 

they put before the first step to give them leverage on the way up.

Once up the slope the carts put on a sort of 'dance' if you will, rocking their cart back and forth with a person in the back pounding a rhythm on the drum. After each finally make it, they go out in a bang, producing their banners, popping streamers, and finally go into a sort of boisterous revelry. They drink sake, Japanese holy water, and proceed to anoint their mikoshi with the sake as well as the crowd. Then they proceed to gift the crowd with mochi, or rice cakes, which are thought to bring good luck in health if obtained.

Other notable areas around the celebration are the stalls. Food stalls. Game stalls. Sweet stalls. Fish stalls. All sorts of things can be found here. And rather go into detail describing them all I will just give you the photos for you to make of it what you will!

七五三 Shichi-Go-San

or seven-five-three for anyone not currently up on their Japanese. These numbers do not relates to waist sizes for a particular store of jeans, but rather a Japanese holiday held every year on today, November 15th. However, since it is not a national holiday and children must still go to school, it is typically celebrated on the preceding weekend.

It is the day when all of the girls of ages 3 or 7 and boys of ages 3 or 5 make their way to a shrine. Why 7-5-3? That is because in Asian culture odd numbers are often seen as lucky. This is a celebration of the passage into middle childhood as well as a celebration for a long and healthy life. On this day children get elaborately dressed up, little girls dress up in fine kimonos, and boys will often wear haori and hakama. Often times going to photo studios for memorable portraits of the day. In present days, more and more children often wear fancy western styled clothes to visit the shrines.

In earlier years (the Edo period) this passage into middle childhood meant that they no longer had to shave their heads as of age 3. And then boys of age 5 were allowed to hakama for the first time. At age 7 girls graduate to being allowed to wear an obi instead of cords to tie their kimono.

haori are the over coats they are wearing.
hakama are the pants that are belted above the waist.

you can see the bow from her obi in the back

Following the purification ritual, parents will sometimes by chitose-ame for their children. Which is translated to thousand year candy. This is a long candy-cane like candy with its red and white stripes. This candy, typically presented by a turtle and a crane upon the package, represents longevity, so that their children may have a long healthy life and happiness.