Japanese Festival and Culture

This weekend, we had a chance to experience a Japanese festival and observe part of a Shinto wedding.  It was a beautiful fall day outside, and we made the most of it by enjoying the sights, soaking up the culture and of course - eating lots of delicious foods and treats.  

November 15th is Shichigosan Day (literally 7-5-3), a day set aside for girls ages 3 and 7, and boys ages 3 and 5.  This day is a traditional rite of passage for these age groups and celebrates the general growth and well-being of these children.  This festival is believed to have originated in the Heian Period (794-1185) and was observed by nobles who celebrated the passage of their children into middle childhood.  The ages are all odd numbers - Odd numbers are considered lucky in East Asian numerology.  Historically, this day marked the time when the 3 year old boy and girl could start growing their hair out - as up until this point, they were required to have shaven heads.  Girls of age 7 also replaced the simple cord tying their kimono at the waist with the traditional obi.  

The obi - versus just a simple cord like string around waist

These traditions have since changed - however it is still common practice to have girls age 3 and 7 and boys age 3 and 5 dress in kimono (often for the first time at age 3) and visit a shrine.  The visit to the shrine has been the constant tradition for this festival - and is believed to drive out evil spirits as well as to wish for a long, healthy life. 

Below are some of the pictures from the festival:

3 year old girls wear these padded vests or hifu over the kimono

Children at the festival are given Chitose Ame - literally meaning "Thousand Year Candy".  It is a long, thin red and white candy, and presented in a bag decorated with cranes and turtles - all which symbolize healthy growth and longevity.  

You can see some of the kids in the pictures holding similar bags.

Another event where the kimono plays a role is a traditional Shinto wedding.   More and more Japanese are choosing a modern Western style wedding but many continue the tradition of the Shinto version.   The clothing is very luxe and elaborate - men wear a type of kimono called the kimono-hakama-haori.

Women wear an all white kimono - called a shiromuku.  Made of expensive silk, some of the modern ones have a subtle trim color at the hem or a iridescence to the fabric.  Symbols of cranes, peacocks, ribbons, fans or pine are embroidered into the fabric.  Another tradition is the wataboshi (hood), or the tsunokakushi (elaborate hat).

The white hood is to cover the bride's "horns of jealousy", as well as to symbolize that she is ready to enter her new home with husband with openness and obedience.  

Here are some pictures of the ceremony that we saw:

During the ceremony, many rituals are preformed, including sipping 3 times from cups of 3 different sizes, drinking only at the third raise, presentation of a sakaki branch to the alter, exchanging of rings and lastly everyone in attendance drinking sake.  

Some new food discoveries - while eating lunch I noticed that my rice was extra tasty and salty.  I had eaten most of the bowl and then realized that what I was eating looked like a tiny fish with eyes.  Sure enough, it was.   They are chirimen jako - or young sardines.  They are used as topping in rice, in green tea, or as an appetizer with drinks or with porridge.  

The other new thing that we came across is when Kenny ordered what he thought was a simple beer.  However it was served with a small amount of ShoChu (whiskey like alcohol) in a large glass.  The "beer" is actually a beer type soda - it contains 0.8% alcohol, and is meant to be mixed with the ShoChu.   When introduced, it was a considered a substitute for beer - since beer was quite expensive and ShoChu very cheap.  Apparently, it has recently made a revival in Japanese pubs.  

That is all for now - Oyasuminasai (Good night!)

Aki no Nihon (Japan In Autumn)

Konnichiwa! Hello!

The leaves are just starting to change in Japan, which has also brought some welcome cooler weather after the brutally hot summer.  I have been able to continue paddleboarding up until just last week.  The water is still warm (60's), but the air is just a bit chilly, even with a wet suit.   
So speaking of weather, I wanted to write a little about some of the more scary weather phenomenon's that occur here.  Coming from the Midwest where the only weather worries were snow (that happened so much it wasn't a big deal), and the threat of a rare tornado (although one did hit my house growing up, so I guess not that rare), but compared to that - the weather threats here are much more volatile and potentially severe.  We survived typhoon season without too much mishap, but the more common thing here is earthquakes.  The entire country of Japan sits in the Ring of Fire -which is a horseshoe shaped area that extends throughout the Pacific coastline, from New Zealand to SE Asia to the entire West coast of the U.S. and continues down the western edge of South America.  This area exists because of where the underlying tectonic plates sit in relation to each other.  Japan lies in a zone of extreme crustal instability.  1500 earthquakes are reported annually - magnitudes between 4-6 are relatively common and minor tremors are daily.  
The area where we live probably has 1-2 quakes per week on average, although most are very small and not noticeable unless inside (and we sleep through most).  However, in the past week, there have been 2 quakes in our area that have measured above 5 on the Richter scale.  I have a phone app that will alarm if a quake in our area is above 3 on the scale, so that was a new experience for us.  The first time, it went off before the quake started with a 10 second advance warning.   The second time it went off during the quake.  It is an interesting application to have - to me, it seems to just add to the stress and implies impending doom while you are sitting in your shaking house with a loud alarm going off.   But, I guess it does tell you how bad it will be so you know if you should expect structural damage, power outages, etc., and it also tells you if there is a tsunami associated with it.   I am in no way a doomsday preparation kind of person - but we have set up an evacuation kit and always have the house stocked with lots of bottled water and nonperishable foods since living here.  One could argue that everyone should have one of these kits no matter where you live.  :)
On to happier thoughts! :)

On Veteran's Day, we took a one day Autumn excursion to some beautiful areas about 2 hours east of Tokyo.  The first stop was at a restaurant for an all you can eat kuni (crab) lunch.  We ate more crab in one sitting than I have ever eaten before.  And, it wouldn't be a true hirugohan (lunch) without other dishes such as a fugu (blowfish) hot pot, and of course - rice. 

A quick language side note - I find it interesting that breakfast, lunch and dinner all have "gohan" after the respective first part of the word indicting time of day.  Gohan means rice - and the Japanese don't consider it a meal without rice in some form or another.  Makes it easier to remember the words. :)

Here is us with the crab, and a pic of the overall lunch spread.

This was our first time eating the Fugu.  All fugu (blowfish/pufferfish) is potentially lethally poisonous due to the tetrodotoxin in it.  Any chef serving fugu has to be specially certified to do so - the training takes 3 years and I've read that most applicants fail the test.   Apparently getting some tingling/numbness to the back of your throat can occur due to some trace amounts of the poison.  Believe it not, this is a desired effect.  Kenny and I did not experience this - maybe because it was a touristy spot they were extra careful with the preparations because they didn't want to freak out all the Americans.   Anyway, the emperor of Japan is not allowed to eat fugu due to potential lethal consequence and restaurants will often arrange fugu sashimi in the shape of a chrysanthemum - which is a symbol of death. 
Here we are eating it:

After surviving lunch, we went for a walk through Korogakinosato - a little village known for its kaki (persimmons) in the fall and its wine in late summer/early fall.  I had never had a persimmon before, although I hear they are available and grown in the States, but they are easily one of my new favorite fruits.  Very sweet with a consistency between a tomato and an apple.  Very popular in Japan, and also extremely popular to dry them - turning them into a very sticky/gooey substance similar to a date.  These are popular for gift-giving around Christmas time.  To dry them, you first have to peel them:

Then, you soak them in Shochu (alcohol) and then tie them up with string and bamboo poles to let dry.  They dry for about 4-6 weeks.   We were there in the early starts of the process:

As the drying process continues, a white substance develops on top of them which is sugar.  The end product looks something like this:

Some other pictures of our walk through Korogakinosato and the Erin-ji Temple. 

 After walking off our large lunch, we went back to the restaurant where they showed us (kind of), how to make a Japanese sweet.  I have talked about mochi in a previous post - basically a gelatinous rice mixture with some sort of filling.  We used peach flavored dough with white sweet bean paste in the middle.  You really just roll the dough into a shape and then use a bamboo stick to make markings and then sprinkle sugar on top.  The making of the actually mochi dough is the most interesting and it was disappointing to not be able to see that part. :(

Last on the tour was Shosenkyo Gorge - one of Japan's most beautiful gorges.  The gorge sits in the Chichibu Tama Kai National Park which covers 1250 square kilometers of Japan.  The river running through the park is the Arakawa River and Shosenko is where the river narrows and develops the 30 meter high waterfall and runs through the high granite cliffs. 

Kakuenbou Peak - the highest in Shosenkyo

The tour potentially offers some fantastic views of Mt. Fuji - below is the best we got.  The peak is officially snow-capped at this time of year, making the view even more picturesque - when you can see "her."

We ended in Tokyo for dinner and some night sight-seeing before heading home.   To end this post - some views from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings - with the observation deck at Floor 45.  

Since this post consisted of earthquake talk and views from a skyscraper in Tokyo - I will leave you with a video of what the skyscrapers do during a severe quake.  Enjoy! :)