Changing impression

This is a small shrine near my house. It was never interesting for me. Since I started to take the class visual anthropology of Japan, however, I've visited here a few times. Then I knew that we cannot see this sight anywhere in the world besides in Japan. Shrines and temples had been too usual for me to realize the value. Stadying my own culture was very new and fascinating for me, and now I'm proud of our unique culture.


Now the tree next to it is changing to red, how beautiful.



photo from Shizuoka, where is hometown of one of my friends.
This fall, I've visited there. Mt.Fuji is often used to represent Japan.

Japanese art and entertainment

↓I found this at a station. It is saying about a festival going to take place on Dec 31st. All the entertainers are Gei-nin(芸人 in Japanese) of Yoshimoto, which is the most famous company offering a lot of Gei-nin.

They have this festival every year at スペイン村(Spain-village in English?) in Shima-city in Mie. The purpose of this is that the audience watch Manzai(their performance) and have countdown to 2009 with them.

a lot of 芸人 are going to perform.




The picture above is one scene of 吉本新喜劇(new comedy of Yoshimoto?) When I was little, my grandparents took me to the play. I don't remember the content, but the performers were so funny that I laughed a lot. In the photo, the middle man in black suit is 池乃めだか(Ikeno Medaka.) He is one of the most popular comedians. His height is very very short for men, but it gets him special.

Yoshimoto is from Osaka. It is getting famous in whole Japan. These days, the number of young people shooting for being famous as a Gei-nin of Yoshimoto is growing.

Japanese politics

In the photo below, there are posters of candidates. They are representing candidates' names and faces with their own slogans. An election coming, you can see these posters on boards anywhere. Most candidates make a poster to help people know about them more and to gain votes.

This photo is very very old because the man in the upper left-hand poster has been arrested for fraud(maybe?) a few years ago.

↑This is my neighbor's house. The son, who is same age as me, used to tell me that his family is supporting 自民党（the Liberal Democratic Party）. They have always such posters on their house's wall. As you see, it is Aso-san now. Some years ago, it was Koizumi-san. People supporting a party get posters from an office of the party. Then, they are willing to put them on their house and show their will to support the person.

Religion in Japan

Today's topic is Religion in this country.
My Australian friend said that fashion was a kind of religion in Japan. Well, she was right. We are crazy about it.

Except fashion, major religion in Japan may be Shinto or Buddhism. I think Tenrikyo is a minor one. The Tenrikyo headquarters is in Tenri-city, Nara. Among Nara people, it is well known that the city is wealthier than other cities in Nara because of Tenrikyo. When I searched about the religion on the Internet, there were a lot of web-pages saying about it. Many people who believe in Tenrikyo are coming to Tenri-city from all over the world. I've finally found out the reason why Tenri-city is so rich.
the Tenrikyo headquarter

"ようこそおかえり" means "welcome home." You can see a lot of signs saying that in Tenri-city. They think the city is home of all believer in Tenrikyo. There were really many signs like the photo, so I felt a little weird.

Tenrikyo has homepages in a lot of languages:http://www.tenrikyo.or.jp/index.html

Gender in Japan

A few years ago, my professor ask his student when we become aware of differences between men and women. I had no idea. He told us that it might be from we entered elementary schools. According him, randoseru(a school bag for elementary school students) is playing the important role in that way.　



I don't know what he said is true or not, but I agree with him about randoseru having some influence on children.


Most of elementary school students, especialy public school students, have randoserus. Students put all they need for classes in their own randoserus and go to school having them on their backs everyday.
There are mainly two colors of randoseru, black or red. All boys have black one or sometimes blue one, and all girls have red or pink one. There is no girl having black, and no boy having red.
I guess this could be the first step they realize that boys and girls are different from each other.
In kindergartens, they all are same. They play together with no concern of gender. After entering school, however, some groups start to appear in a class room. These groups often consist of boys only or girls only.


randoseru with my cousin.







black one







randoseru in classroom from Wikipedia

However, new elementary school students can choose the color of their randoseru in these days. We will see a lot of students having colorful randoserus on their back.

many colors:http://item.rakuten.co.jp/kagunavi/gd-00110/

Sports in Japan

In schools, baseball is so popular and lots of students get excited at the kokoyakyu tournament every summer. However, the sport for students to devote their seisyun (青春　"youth") to is not only baseball.

When I was a middle school student, I was on the naginata club. Naginata is a kind of martial arts. It looks like kendo, and the rules are almost same. The different thing between them is the length of arms. We use the arm called naginata, same as the name of the sport itself, and it is over two meters long. It is said that naginata is used by women for their own protection in the Edo era. I don't know that is the reason, but still the students who play naginata are mainly girls. Actually my club had only 2 boys out of 51 girls. Our coach and manager were also women.

Sadly, naginata is not a so popular sport. There were only a few schools which have the clubs in my home city. I have a little sad memory in my mind. When I entered high school, a new friend asked me if I had been on any clubs in my middle school, if so, what club it was.

"Yes, naginata club." I answered.

"Naginata...? kind of card game??" she said.

"What..??? card game..?????? Is she sure?"

After that, I explained one of sport "naginata" to her. This made me aware that naginata is much less popular than I had thought. Even Japanese, some of them don't know this sport.

further information about naginata : http://naginata.jp/eng/eng1.html

My junior in the club is having a match.






after-school practicing

Globalization in Japan

One of my friends likes reading magazines about foreign celebrities. She buys some of them every month.
Nowadays lots of young girls are following the latest fashion of American stars like Paris Hilton or Kate Moss. They are also interested in their gorgeous life in LA. I guess the reason such magazines are published and getting popular is that Japanese people, especially girls, have akogare to other countries. They are immitating the celebrities with changing hair color or getting their eyelids double-edged.
We Japanese people also like to watch American TV drama. The DVDs of HEROES or 24 are very popular among many generations.

We can see a large number of clothes with messages in English. One teacher in my high school often told his students that we should be careful of wearing clothes having sentences in another language. Sometimes they are wrong and seems strange to native people. There are a lot of things having English words around us in Japan. The photo below is my sisters' T short.

This site has funny signs in English and some of them are taken in Japan. http://www.engrish.com/

Japanese traditional culture

Today's topic is Japanese traditional culture.
I was trying to find something traditional in my house.

In the first photo, you can see archery in a glass box.
When my younger brother was born, my grandparents bought it.
I remember that my grandfather told me about the archery. When a family has their first son, they get an ornament expressing strength like archery or armor. It means they hope he will be strong and brave. Families with girls get a doll set displayed on the Girl's Festival day on March 3rd. My family used to have one, but my mother gave her sister's family. So now we have only this archery in the corner of a closet. Actually I didn't even know we still have it.

The second photo is a catalogue of "Furisode" for Coming-of-age Day. Coming-of-age Day(Seijin no hi) is the second Monday of January. We celebrate this day to welcome young people who are 20 or going to be 20 in that year as new members of society. This year, my sister has this ceremony. For that day, she had had her own kimono made almost one year in advance. Lately, it has arrived and she got excited so much.

Japanese pop culture

Today's topic is Japanese pop culture.



I think online shopping is getting popular among lots of Japanese people.
Younger people mainly buy clothes on shopping websites. Actually I got a jacket for this winter on a shopping website. Sometimes they sell much cheaper than stores do. I also have some shopping catalogues.



I'm wondering why their models are not Japanese. Though most of customers are supposed to be Japanese people.

These bears are "rela-kuma", and white one is "ko- rela-kuma". "Rela" means "relax" and "kuma" means "bears". "Ko" means "小(small)" in Japanese. They are expeced to get people relaxed and feel comfortable. They have been loved by girls in Japan for a few years. At first I didn't like them at all, but after one of my friends gave me a key ring of ko-rela-kuma, I found them so cute.
Now they are appearing in the TV commercial for TOYOTA.

Japanese people

The topic is Japanese people.


I was born and brought up in Japan, so I think the Japanese people I know the most are my family. Let me write a little bit about my family.


In the first photo, my family is having dinner. Today's dinner is sukiyaki.


We have meals with sitting on the floor. I think lots of Japanese people like sitting on the floor when they have meals. A pot is set in center of the table, and my sisters are putting vegitables and meat into the pot.

The man sitting in front of TV is my father. He is working for a construction company. After he came back to home and took a bath, he drinks a can of beer. That is one of his pleasure.

My mother is a houseworker. She is into Korean dramas now like other middle-aged women.

My family has four children, and I am the oldest girl. My younger sisters really like watching foreign movies. They often go to TSUTAYA together and rent some DVDs.

This is my brother. He looks relaxed and seems to be falling into a sleep on the massaging chair.

By the way, the TV show we were watching this evening was interesting. The show is "笑ってコラえて". You can watch it on Channel 10 from 8 p.m. on every Wednesday. I am sure it shows real Japanese people.

http://www.ntv.co.jp/warakora/

Neighborhood Nara

Nara is a prefecture next to Osaka.
My house is in Nara-city.
I hope you could know about my hometown Nara.

This city used to be a capital of Japan about 1300 years ago in Nara era. Because of that, it has a lot of historical places and shrines. For good example, Daibutsu, the Great Buddha of Todaiji, is very famous. It is the biggest wooden architecture in the world.

Around Todaiji, it is Nara Park. In the park, there is lots of deer. Many couples of deer have babies in this season. So if you go there, you can see baby deer following their parents.

Nara is going to have special festival in 2010.

2010 is 1300th anniversary of having relocated the capital to Nara.
We have a mascot for the festival. His name is "Sento", which means relocating the capital, and he has horns like deer. I do not like him so much. How about you?

from: http://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/0806/02/news073.html#l_yuo_manto_02.jpg

Athletic meeting

Fall is coming. A lot of elementary schools have a big event this weekend. It is "undo-kai"("athletic meeting"). I would like you to know about this annual school event.

After the long vacation in summer, pupils start preparing for their undo-kai at the end of September.

In the event, pupils compete in many kind of sporting activities. They perform footraces, three-legged races, piggyback fight and so on. Parents also come to watch their children doing the activities, and sometimes they participate in an activity.

The day I visited an elementary school to take pictures, the pupils were rehearsing the event.

It is said that "undo-kai" bigan more than a hundred years ago.

This traditional event has been continued for long time .

Pupils and parents are looking forward to this Sunday.