One year has past.

One year has past since I started to write this English blog.
This is my first post. I remember it took me about 1 hour to finish such a short post.
Thankfully, I have continue writing. I can’t find so much progress on my sentense strucutre, but I have been able to write much faster than a year ago. I didn’t expect so many people visit my blog, and leave their comments. Thank you so much.
(I’ve finished this one in 5 minutes!)

When and where do you take off your shoes?

Yesterday, I read an interesting short essay in the newspaper, written by the writer Fujiwara Tomomi (HE,  not she!). It was the title of his article that caught my eyes. That said, “Only the Japanese who were wearing shoes.” You could imagine easily that the Japanese take off their shoes inside the house as it’s their custom. But how come, as he said, only the Japanese kept wearing their shoes at the party held by a French man living in Tokyo. I summarized his article below.
Before reading my summary, do you know what ‘Agari kamachi’ is? The Agari kamachi is a kind of step to enter the living space from an entrance in Japanese houses. Commonly, you’re supposed to take off your shoes before you step on that Agari kamachi. It’s easier for you and me to show you some pictures of Agari kamachi to make it clear.

This's a very traditional one.

This type is common in modern houses.

 

　

 

 

 

 

 

It happened at the party where I was invited by the French living in Tokyo. I found the several Japanese among of many foreigners there. The Amid of merry atmosphere, I was startled to know that every one except me were not wearing their shoes, while I was in my boots perfectly! However, taking a good look at them, I found that other Japanese were wearing their shoes either. I whispered behind my fan, “We are supposed to take off our shoes here..” to one Japanese beside of me, and rushed to the entrance hall and there I found a bunch of shoes were lined up insidiously. Why? We are so accustomed to take off our shoes that we never make such a rudeness? The answer is clear. Because, there was no Agarikamachi in that house. The Japansese unconsciously make their decision whether to take off ther shoes or not depend on the existence or nonexistence of the Agarikamachi. We never wonder about it at a hotel room or an office room to where the floor is extending flatly from the corridor. Also, once we found the Agarikamachi, we will take off our shoes without any doubt.
That Agarikamachi has now been disappearing from modern Japanese houses. They call this movement as ‘ barrier-free/バリアフリー’. I wonder this movement would be accelerated more and more, and finally the Agarikamachi had gone away? Could you imagine the Japanese live in their houses wearing shoes in the future? I don’t think so. I believe the Japanese would never stop taking off their shoes in their private space. The Agarikamachi is not merely a step but it’s the border between outside and inside of the house, and they believe that border has some cultural meaning in their lives. If the Agarikamachi would have gone, we might lose that something in our mind either. I want to know what the something is.”

 

From the article by 藤原智美 in The Yomiuri newspaper of the 4th of Nov.

I do take off my shoes in my room, and anywhere if it’s possible. I guess he had that mistake because the Japanese people tend to think that the westerner don’t take off their shoes until they go to bed. (Is it true?) And the Japanese are too carefull not to cross other’s custom while they are invited to the foreign culture.
How about you? When and Where do you take off your shoes?

ハローウィーン Halloween in Japan

Tsukareru-chan sent me a BIG package for Halloween present! Thank you Tsukareru!

The most surprising thing of them was this!!

My family could not even cut it, so asked for help to neighbors!!

They were all screaming out , gazing at, and laughing!! The only person who could eat it casually was the smallest girl in that picture! She was CHEWING the cut pinky!! EWWW!
I shared a few kind of candies that Tsukareru sent me with them. It’s funny! It’s our halloween day. How about yours?

Watshoi !! わっしょい!!

On the last weekend , the Autumn Festival was held at my village. From the Saturday evening to through the Sunday, they had enjoyed this traditional event. Kids are allowed to stay up a bid late, and fathers can be drunken all day long!

Haul! Haul!

This big cart is called O-mikoshi that is supposed to be the Shito god’s seat and while this o-mikoshi being moved, inside of the red thick curtain of the o-mikoshi, the Noricko boys keep playing the music and calling out strongly with distinct intonation. This sound always make me feel somehow Godly and exciting!!

To the shrine, they had to make it climb up the steps

Ooops! the wheel was out!

They swing the o-mikoshi with calling out “Washoi Washoi!!” You can see how hard it was swinging by its fringes. Even such a bumpy moments, the Noricko boys can not stop playing the music, because they are supposed to be the children of the Shinto god. They competed each other in front of the main shrine house.
THEY are the Noriko boys!! They are not allowed to step on the earth all that day long, because you know, they are the GOD children!! so, they have to be taken themselves to the bathroom on one’s shoulders. It’s very tough deal, but also very honorable for boys.

 

The men had kept carrying the omikoshi until it got dark. It looks they were strong, but I think they were so drunken that they didn’t feel tired!

I guess some/many of them are absent from their work today!!

The oil ration token of over 30 year ago

In the age of the oil crisis in 1970’s, the Japanese government printed the oil ration token since the situation had been expected getting worth. The number of them was 7 billion. However, fortunately they didn’t need to use them, and kept the heap of token in the warehouse. Believe or not, that heap of token have being kept as they were since then for 30 years!!! The total cost for storing is over 1 billion yen (approximately 10 million $US) and they have kept paying over 70 million yen(7 hundred thousand $US) every year.

Finally, they decided to stop storing them and scrap that huge amount of token, which volume is over 50 thousand packs of cardboard box. Someone must be wondering if it’s possible to keep paper properly for 30 years. It IS possible, because they keep them in the warehouse having air conditioning system as fancy as a museum!  Such a stupid, ridiculous, damn bureaucracy!!

How do you say ‘muko/婿’ in English?

Did you watch the American movie “The proposal”?
I think the Japanese title of that movie is better than the original “The proposal”.
The Japanese title is “あなたは私の婿になる/anata wa watashi no muko ni naru.” . You can easily imagine which one of the couple has the initiative only by the word ‘muko‘, and you also know it’s a comedy.

If I translate the Japanese title into English again, it could be ‘You will be my husband.’ or something. I don’t know the proper English word describes an implicit meaning of the Japanese word ‘muko’. A ‘husband’ is not enough. A ‘groom’ may be different in this case. The dictionary says ‘muko’ means ‘groom’ or ’son in law’.  It IS used certainly for these meanings. However, ‘muko‘ has another implicit but important meaning, I think. 

‘Muko‘ is used for a man who marry a woman from the family without boys.  If the family doesn’t have any boy, or the boy was accidentally died or something, the eldest girl has to marry a man who could take charge of the successor of the girl’s family.  For that reason, the groom is supposed to change his family name to wife’s one, and so his kids would also have wife’s family name.  They sometimes use ‘muko youshi’  instead of ‘muko’ to make his position clear. (Youshi means adoption.)

Recently, they doesn’t mind so seriously to success the family name than before. For instance, I am the eldest girl and I don’t have any brothers, but I married my husband who is the ELDEST boy in his family. My younger sister also married with the eldest man, so my parents don’t have any successor officially. It’s quite common these days. However, it’s rare that the guy who become to be ‘muko‘ willingly unless the girl’s family is the millionaire.

Nevertheless, the word ‘muko‘ still reminds us the ancient Japan, in which days a muko was supposed to be tamed, patient and modest to wife’s family.  So, in this movie title, they picked up that word ‘muko’ than just ‘husband’  deliberately, it works to make people imagine the story might be about the bossy woman forces a man to marry with her.

Oniyome and Soushoku-kei danshi are floating these days, and they also imply the relationship between women and men has changed. How is it going in your culture?

“Oniyome” = A wife who tames her husband and she is very strong, offensive to him. The TV drama Oniyome nikki(diary) is funny and my son’s fav!?

“Soushoku-kei danshi“= Soushoku(kei) means herbivorous. Danshi means boys. So, Soushoku-kei danshi doesn’t move initiativelly to get a woman like a hunting animal. They are just waiting a girl gives him a chance.

Taiyaki (たいやき)

This is a taiyaki from my yesterday snack. Every time I have a taiyaki, it brings me back memories of the children song  “Oyoge taiyaki-kun“. The song had been a huge hit when I was 7 or 8. I used to sing the song and draw the character with my peers. We would vie against each other to create the best illustration.
I looked for the movie of the song and I found both the Japanese one and the English one!
I didn’t know it has the English version. Have you ever heared it before?

filled with anko(sweetened red beans)

 

The cooking recipe for taiyaki is here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD7JjeupVt0

What does this gesture design in your culture?

I take this pose for ”Itadaki masu” that means to thank for God to feed us. Or, sometimes you use it for apologizing. Mr.Johnny Depp often uses it to express his gratitude to his fans. From what I gathered, it does means “Thank you” in Thailand. For the Japanese, taking bow deeply expresses your gratitude more clearly. Anyway, if a westerner would take this pose, it looks modest and never be something offends you. However, when I saw that on the TV, the Japanese actor (I forgot exactly who he was. It might be Ken Watanabe or Hiroyuki Sanada?) doing this pose on the Red Carpet,  I thought it’s weird. It might be because I know he’s Japanese.

Okagesamade, we have NO damage!

I’m sorry I can’t show you how fast the clouds were moving toward the typhoon because the typhoon dragged it.

Okagesamade, Forutunately, we didn’t have any damage. It had passed through our region during the night, so I didn’t even know how hard it’s been blowing.

Okagesama de;
You can’t live alone. You are saved by people who surround you. You might not notice the existance of someone or something supporting you secretly, like a shadow. O-kage-sama/お影さま means shadow in polite way. When you want to thank for God and all people who support you, say Okagesamade.(thanks to okagesama).

The path of the big typhoon

台風の進路予報　The forecast of the comming typhoon. here→☆