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