日本人。祭り。元気。

Ever since I have been to Japan, I always find chances to go to various festivals or community events in neighborhoods, shrines and temples. I was impressed the most by the Danjiri matsuri in Kishiwada, Osaka, which was the first community festival in Japan I had been to. It took about one and a half hour to get to Kishiwada from Hirakata-shi by transferring from one train to another for at least twice. By the time I arrived at Kishiwada station, I could barely walk pass the exit since there was already a big crowd right in front of the station. The Danjiri matsuri is famous for the portable shrine carrying competition among local groups and the way in which those group members carry their portable shrines, especially when they need to move the portable shrine heading to a different direction.  When I saw how passionate the mikoshi carrying groups were, I was surprised since I could not imagine how the usually quiet and rigid Japanese can be such loud and excited. Especially for those who may work as salary men in their regular daily lives who turn into those passionate mikoshi carriers for only once or twice a year. They take off their suits and wear those traditional clothing for festival. No matter what they did to earn a living in daily life, they shout out loudly with their faces turned red by excitement without any restrains.

 I was very impressed by how energetic and different these Japanese people were in comparison with those I encountered in the train. And they gave me the chance to realize how loud Japanese people can get when they are willing to do so. In such a country like Japan in which people are constantly living in a rigid frame with all kinds of traditional values in mind, various festivals maybe an outlet through which these Japanese people can temporarily be loud, be different from how they are usually like without breaking any social norms since these festivals themselves are a significant part of Japanese culture. Even though Danjiri matsuri is also famous for the beautiful and detailed decorations of the portable shrine, visitors of the festivals in general all seemed to be attracted by the passionate carriers rather than the pretty portable shrines.

 When I happened to see that one of the portable shrine was broken down for the moment, and all carriers in that community group were trying their best to fix it so that they could get back to the competition as soon as possible. When the carriers seemed to be frustrated by the problem with the wheels, the kids and other members in the same local group surrounded the whole portable shrine trying to see what indeed happened, while some of them sat down for tea and snack. This festival was apparently a community event in which most of the local residents participate except the seniors who may not have the energy to keep up with group. The portable shrine carrying group was basically a team with male teenagers in the very beginning followed by kids and girls, and then in the middle of the team were the portable shrine and its carriers who were -mostly young or middle-aged men with women or other group member at the back waving the huge round fan at the back of the team. The loudest person in the team maybe the male member who stood on the top of the portable shrine who was shouting out words to inspire the team from time to time to make the competition more intense and exciting.

The Futontaiko matsuri in Hirakata was also an impressive one which was held in a manner similar to that of the Danjiri matsuri. But the emphasize of the Futontaiko matsuri is the portable shrine decorated by futon with kids performing taiko who sit inside the mikoshi. Even though the Futontaiki matsuri was also one in which community members of all ages participated, unlike the Danjiri matsuri, the kids here in the mikoshi carrying teams were at the back of the team carrying a smaller mikoshi themselves and followed the big mikoshi. With the music of taiko, the Futontaiko matsuri seemed to be more or less louder than the Danjiri matsuri, while they were both very loud.

I was very impressed to see how Japanese people work hard together as community members and how loud and passionate these people let themselves be. Personally, these festivals allowed me to see an significant part of the Japan culture and a colorful aspect of the Japanese way of life. All that I witnessed in various festivals and local events gradually changed my initial impressions of Japan and Japanese based on what I learn from academic articles or textbooks with more different dimensions and vivid scenes are added to my experiences with Japan the land and Japanese the people.

Official website of the Danjiri matsuri

http://www.city.kishiwada.osaka.jp/site/danjiri/

other websites

http://eonet.jp/danjiri/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v0ZdIW71A4&noredirect=1

Video of the Hirakata Futontaiko Matsuri

枚方市。六十代。美なづき会。

                A few words in my previous blog about the life of my host mother was far from enough to cover how special Minazukikai, the traditional dancing community my host mother is in, is and how ordinary it is at the same time. Minazukikai was started in a June twenty years ago. The meaning of “minazuki” is “a beautiful June;” and “kai” means community. So Minazukikai together means “A community started in a beautiful June.” In these twenty years, Minazukikai has grown from less than 10 people to 30 members today. The average age of the members is 66, and the oldest member in Minazukikai is now 80 years old. All members in Minazukikai are female at an age ranging from 55 to 80. There is never any man who intended to join it. But even there might be one; he would be refused friendly since it would be very awkward and inconvenient to have one single male in the community with all other women who usually put make up and change kimono in the same room.

                Basically, all members practice once a week. During time periods before important performances, members usually practice themselves at home along with the group practice once a week.  These weekly practices are conducted in four different local community centers in Hirakata City. The 30 members are divided into four groups with 7 or 8 people in each one since the rooms for practice are not big enough for all 30 members to practice together within the 4 hours time flame of each practice. Thus, there are four practices in total each week which take place on different days of the week so that the only teacher of Minazukikai can attend each other to give instructions. The fee of renting the practice room is divided each time and paid by the members who share the same room. And for each practice, each member pays 700 yen to the manager of the Minazukikai which will be eventually all given to the teacher as a thanking gift for instructions. Therefore, each member is paying 2800 yen for practices each month. Besides the 2800 yen for practices, members also need to pay 700 yen in addition each month including 300 yen for management fee and 400 yen for room rentals. The 300 yen from each member each month will be deposited into the bank account of Minazukikai for the expenses of the annual party and the purchases of kimono and other accessories for dancing.  The bank book has to be checked by all members once a year in the annual party so that everyone can be informed clearly about the financial condition of the community. The bank account has existed for the last twenty years and now it has a balance of 267,461 yen, which will continue to keep the community running.

                All the regular practices ensure that members are familiar with their dances, and thus can perform confidently in various performances that Minazukikai takes part in. There are performances throughout the year in which all or some of the dances of Minazukikai are performed. The biggest and most important annual performance of Minazuki kai is the review performance which takes place every October. This performance is made up of about 40 dances in total including one individual dance by each member and some group dances. Each year, one performance by international students at Kansai Gaidai is included in this annual review performance. Since I was one of the international students who were performing this year, I got the chance to move freely in the back stage, observe what people were doing, take pictures and talk to them.  Except the members of Minazukikai, there were also a makeup team and a team for the dressing up of hair and kimono. It cost about 3500 yen for one hair set, 2000 yen for a kimono set and about 10000 yen for one makeup. And it cost at least 15000 yen for a stage setting for each dance. This admission for this review performance is totally free, while each visitor was given a small gift for attending. All the costs needed for the performance were all paid by members themselves. It was a big number for each member to pay. All members are just ordinary housewives who already retired or are still working part time. Everybody is saving 1000 to 2000 yen each month in order to pay all the expenses needed for this annual performance.

                In additional to this annual review performance, there are various performances in events and volunteer performances at about 10 different local nursing houses which make up the busy schedule of Minazukikai throughout the year. These performances are also the reason why Minazukikai can keep growing in the last twenty years. Ordinary housewives became members of Minazukikai primarily because they want to stay healthy and have fun through dancing. With the support from their family, some of the members are able to fulfill their childhood dreams of becoming a dancer or wearing gorgeous kimono through Minazukikai. The goal of Minazukikai is to contribute to the local area as an energetic, friendly, interesting and well united community. As a rule, no topics about politics and religion are allowed in the group to avoid any possible negative effects on the relationship among members.

                I decided to learn about Minazukikai in depth because I had the chance to interact with the members and obtain important information from my host mother, who is the manager of it. Minazukikai is a local dancing community in which everything from regular practices schedule, finances to the organization of performances are all managed by members themselves. It is not a business, but a community made up by ordinary housewives who share the same hobby. There are many similar local communities in Hirakata City like Minazukikai from which foreigners may be able to learn about how Japanese spend their sparing time in the way they like and how the community is bound together. It is their life style.

パチンコ。ニホンジン。セーカツ。

Because of the storyboarding presentation, I had a reason to go into a pachinko store and play pachinko for the first time. I had been passing by different pachinko stores everyday in my daily routine during the first 3 months being in Japan.  And finally I walked into one last week. Since the entrances of all the pachinko stores I had seen were all automatic doors, I could always hear loud music from within the stores whenever the doors happened to open when I walked pass. But it was not until I walked into the store myself when I realized how loud the music was and how heavy the smell of cigarettes was. I thought that basically all pachinko players were male; however, I entered the store at the same time as several middle-aged women.  I also saw some bikes with seats for children parking right outside the pachinko stores. There might be some housewives who would like to spend their free time playing pachinko. It is not an entertainment for male only. But it is apparently an activity for adults only since all pachinko stores have signs warning that anyone under 18 is not allowed to enter the store. Sometimes on my way to school in the early morning, I can see people including both men and women lining up in front of a pachinko store.  There are always enough pachinko machines in the store for everyone. But they are lining up in order to play the “good” machines with which players have more chances to win. These “good” machines usually locate near the doors so that the sound of pachinko coming out of the machine and excitement of the players can attract more players from outside.

However, I think one can never understand pachinko and pachinko players merely by standing or walking around in the store. So I participated, and I finally understand how the players can bear to stay playing in such a noisy and smelly place for hours and hours. I was excited and nervous to a certain point as a first time player while the store manager was trying to introduce me the whole process of playing pachinko. Once I started turning the switch of the machine and pachinkos started bouncing around in the machine, the pachinkos had my full attention and I no longer felt that the place was noisy and smelly since I was completely attracted by the pachinkos. Maybe this is the reason why many people like spending time playing pachinko. It requires players’ full attention; and thus they do not have the mind to think about anything else. In this way, players may be able to relax and thus release stress from study, work or daily life as pachinko offers them another world to live. The machine that I played was one that used 1 yen pachinkos which cost the least in stores comparing with 2 yen, 4 yen and 5 yen pachinkos. These machines accept paper bills only starting from 1,000 yen to 10,000 yen. With 1000 pachinkos to start with, I played for less than 15 minutes with 998 pachinkos left. So I thought I might be able to get 998 yen cash back. But the exchange rate is different before and after playing. For each pachinko falling into the holes inside the machine, one to three pachinkos will be won. Therefore, even though a pachinko costs 1 yen at the beginning, it might only worth one third of 1 yen at the end when the number of pachinkos is exchanged into store points. As a result, I receive two mini Yakult drinks, a few candies and a small instant cheese fish sausage. Besides, I received a small bookmark like stick along with the snacks with which I was given 500 yen cash back from a little window counter right outside the back door of the store. So I spent 1000 yen cash and got 500 yen cash and some snacks back. I do not understand how everything turned out to be like this, but I assume that there is a complicated system based on which the pachinko stores operate.

I was lucky enough to get to know a part-time worker at the pachinko store who graduated from Kansai Gaidai two years ago with an English major. He was the only staff working in the store who is able to speak English. The manager asked him to help me out as soon as he was told that I am a foreigner. This Kansai Gaidai alumnus was thinking to quit his part time job at the pachinko store even though he had been working there for a month only. He did not want to continue the job because it was a boring one with the lowest hourly wage. According to him, most staffs except managers working in the pachinko store are young adults who generally work 7 hours a day.  This job is boring because all staffs are required to greet customers and keep a track on the pachinkos they won with big energetic smiles all the time.  Pachinko stores do not open 24 hours a day. The one I went to opens from 10am to 11pm every day. During the half hour talking with this part-time worker next to the back door of the store, I observed that more than 10 people walked through the back door of which 80 percent are male.  

After experiencing pachinko myself, I believe that the pachinko phenomenon in Japan should not be interpreted merely from its surface. I wish I can interview regular pachinko players and store staffs if I had the chance to know more about the pachinko culture.

http://www.pachinko-play.com/en/navi/about_pachinko.html

奈良。小学校。秋季大運動会。

 I wondered if sports meetings in Japan are like those in animations, so I went to see one myself. One that took place in a primary school in Nara. It was on a Saturday morning in October. I woke up before 7am and managed to arrive in the primary school before 9am. When I was still wondering the reason why I had to get there so early since the sports meeting would not start until 10am, I understood immediately the moment I saw how crowded the playground was and how difficult it was to find a spot for sitting. It was because that was my host parents’ grandchild’s sports meeting that I was able to enter the primary school as everyone visiting that day must have a name tag with them that clarify which family they were in for security reasons. The playground that day was basically blue except the central part since each family had one big blue plastic mat to sit on. All families were sitting next to each other, and it was also one of the situations in Japanese life in which one is required to take off shoes before walking on the mats.  In addition, if one had to walk pass other people’s mats before getting to his or her own, then one must say “excuse me” constantly before he or she enter the area of his or her own mat. The area of a family’s mat symbolized the territory of that family for that period.  This might be reason why parents and grandparents were willing to wake up and arrive much earlier that day in order to put their mats on desirable areas. A desirable area that day was one where good pictures could be taken and competitions could be watched closely and clearly.

                Based on how crowded the playground was and the fact that almost all family members participated, I assumed that the sports meeting in primary school is considered a family event in Japan.  Later, I found out that there are four events in primary school every year in which parents and other family members will probably show up. There is the culture festival every February and the sports meeting every October. These are two primary school events in which families of all students will participate. And then there is the ceremony for new students every April and one for graduated students every March. In these two events, families of the first graders or the six graders will show up.

                Simply put, the primary school sports meeting can be regarded as a collective activity of primary students in which they compete with each other base on athletics skills. However, it is much more than that in Japan. It is a complicated system operated under the influence of parents, teachers and the national education department and even the change of Japanese society. There were four groups in the sports meeting each represented by its own color, and each group had its own winning slogan. At first, I thought that those four groups were simply four different classes, but at the same time I wondered why there were only four classes in the whole school and each one with so many students. But it turned out that I was completely wrong.  Students in the same class were first divided into four groups, and then students in the same group in each class come together to form one single big group. In other words, one big group was formed by students from different classes in different grades. This also meant that students in the same class were competing with each other since they were divided into different groups. This might be an action to create the maximum equality and friendliness between groups since one important aspect of the sports meeting was that the result would not matter as long as the students learned how to corporate with each other and try their best. It was very interesting for me to find out that in Japan, a country where people are always encouraged to try very hard, words like “ganbatte” should be avoided in public announcements during the sports meeting in the recent decade. The reason is simple. Parents do not want their children to bear more pressure by hearing “ganbatte” from their teachers since their children are already trying very hard. Personally, I do not think this is a good change and it may be explain the reason why the young Japanese generation is so spoiled in a way.

                There was no reward for the first group which won the most points. It was only one school announcement about which group was the first followed by claps by everyone. At the end, every student received the same gifts no matter what group they were in. Again, the winner or the loser was not emphasized or even paid attentions to in the sports meeting. And the final results were counted towards the groups instead of individuals. Recently, students were taught to value study much more than sports. As a result, the sports meeting became an occasion for students to have fun which is not seriously considered since its results do not affect one’s academic performance and exam ranking.  But I personally think that physical health is as important as academic performance.

京阪電車。京都。鳥羽街道駅。

“Sabishi na.” This is the first impression of Tobakaido station I got from my host father. From Tambabashi to Shichijo on the Keihan line, there is a concentration of stations; Tobakaido is a small and very ordinary station comparing with other stations in this section which at least are known for nearby sightseeing spots in Kyoto. Even though Tobakaido is in the middle of Tofukuji and Fushimi-inari which are stations frequently visited by tourists, it can be barely noticed for people who pass by. I got off at Tofukuji and walked to Tobakaido in order to know the area better, but I passed the station on my way without noticing its location at all. It was not until I got to Fushimi-inari did I realized that I walked pass Tobakaido already. When I walked back to the Tofukuji direction, I still had a hard time locating Tobakaid. It was the noisy busy train tracks right next to the station that draw my attention and led me to the station.

There are four tracks in front of Tobakaido of which two are Keihan line and the other two are the JR line. They run next to each other while there is a narrow space in the middle separating the Keihan and JR. This space is just big enough for a little Japanese style restaurant. I stood in front of the restaurant for about half an hour, there were three trains ran pass the station in 5 minutes in average.  As a result, the traffic lights and the stop bars on both sides of the tracks keep changing all the time. Cars, bikes and pedestrians have to stop frequently to wait until all the trains are gone. I do not know why the restaurant locates in the middle of these tracks which are very noisy and the trains somehow shake the restaurant by passing by in a high speed.  But among all these trains, only the sub express and local trains on the Keihan line actually stop at the station. Meanwhile, there is no transfer to other train lines or bus at Tobakaido. The structure of the station is very simple and typical. There is nothing much other than the entrance which is also the exit, the small office of the station attendant, the ticket selling machines and the platforms.  During the time I was standing by the entrance, there are about a couple of people entering the station in 10 minutes. It was in the early afternoon on a Saturday, so that might be the reason why I did not see many passengers. There are highly concentrated residential areas around the station with narrow streets and old houses. On the back of the station is where the Nintendo Company building locates which used to be the head quarter of Nintendo in Kyoto.

Tobakaido station on the Keihan website:

http://www.okeihan.net/navi/spot/station/detail.php?station_info_no=35

When I was wondering why the station is called Tobakaido, my host mother suggested that it might be because it used to the place where people started walking from Kyoto to Toba. But since she is not a local person living in the area, she asked the owners of the local business the day she went there with me. The owner of an old family style Japanese restaurant in which we had lunch told us that Tobakaido got its name because its location was where the ancient Toba-fushimi battle took place since Kyoto was the base for the Shinsengumi.  Tobakaido is 20 minutes’ walking distance from Tofukuji and 15 minutes’ walking distance from Fushimi-inari. It is not known for any famous temple or sightseeing spots, but Tobakaido is there to serve residents and whoever may one day visit it, someone like me.

主婦。ホストお母さん。日本舞の達人。

41 years ago, Hashimoto Matsuko wore a beautiful rented kimono and became the wife of Kataoka Kooji through a Shinto ceremony when she was 22 years old. Today, the retired 63 years old Kataoka Matsuko is an experienced housewife, a professional host mother and a talented dancer who is trying to make my life in Japan fruitful and unforgettable.

Before I met my host mother, all that I can relate to housewives in Japan is a life which follows the same routine every day, cooking, shopping, and picking up children from school. But my host mother gave me a whole new view of Japanese women. On one hand, my host mother is an ordinary housewife and mother like any other married women in Japan. She is good at cooking both Japanese food and western food. For my host mother, who has been a housewife for 41 years, the most challenging task now is to think about the daily menu. She is trying her best to offer different food everyday so that I, a foreign student, can taste different Japanese food from which I learn about Japanese culture. It is from her that I knew the four seasons have an important role in Japanese cuisine. It is from the every meal which she prepares and cooks that I start to sense the depth and richness of Japanese food culture.

My host mother always knows where I want to travel to or what kind of information I may be interested because she has been hosting international students for 20 years. She told me the first day we met that I am the 18^th foreign student she is hosting. My host mother first host students when her son is in college and her daughter is a high school students. The initial reason for her to become a host mother is simple, she wanted to learn English herself and she also wanted her children to become better at English. The beginning of her life as a host mother does not surprise me, while I was completely amazed when she told me about her being an exchange student in New Zealand. When my host mother was 49 years old, she went to New Zealand in order to improve her English where she stayed with her host parents who were at that time both over 90 years old for a month. According to my host mother, that one month is too short for her to have any major improvement in English. But the study aboard program allowed her to experience the life of home stay students.

It was in the same year when my host mother started hosting students that she also became one of the first few members of Minatsukikai, a local Japanese dancing community. At the beginning, my host mother did not enjoy her dancing activities very much since she was busy with her part-time job at Resona Bank and housework. She joined the community mainly because her sister is both the founder and the teacher of it. However, as my host mother continued to participate in more and more dancing performances, she became deeply into Japanese dancing. Today, there are 30 members in the community. Every October, the community will hold a dancing workshop at Kansai Gaidai in which foreign students are taught how to wear kimono and some simple Japanese traditional dance. It was in this year’s workshop when I had the chance to see my host mother performing for the first time. She participated in both feminine and masculine dances in which she worn female kimono or male kimono. The performance allowed me to discover another side of my host mother. She was very confident, skillful and passionate when she is dancing.

The life of my host mother is definitely a multi-dimensional one. It is she who shows me how colorful and energetic the life of an ordinary Japanese woman can be. This year’s dancing workshop at Gaidai is the 24^th one, and my host mother will continue it as long as she can.

近所。山の上北町。ごみ。

　　The first thing in Yamanouekita machi that caught my eyes was the bottles of water that were placed near the poles, traffic mirrors and walls in the neighborhood. My host mother later told me that the bottles are for garbage. Started with these bottles, I got to know more and more about how people deal with garbage and what rules they are following in the neighborhood. In Yamanouekita machi, the way of putting garbage out is a serious matter. It is not simply one family’s own concern, but also a public issue of the whole neighborhood. Every day, I follow the same path going back and forth the house and the main road right outside the residential area. During the 8 minutes’ walk, I paid attention to the spots people put their garbage, the tools they use to gather the garbage and the way they handle the garbage along the path. It is difficult for me, a new comer in the neighborhood, to figure out how things work. But in fact, there is a comprehensive system involved in regard of the garbage issue in the neighborhood.

There is a self-governed community in Yamanouekita machi which is made up of a community leader and many group leaders. The neighborhood is divided into many different groups based on the location of the houses. New residents are told where and how they should put their garbage out by their group leader when they move in. I noticed that only one of all the garbage spots I know is officially marked by a board with the schedule and categories of garbage on it. But it is easy to tell where the garbage spots are based on the presence of colored nets and bottles of water or bricks. The nets are used to cover the garbage, while the bottles or the bricks are used to hold the net in place so that the crows and cats cannot break the garbage bags and eat food leftovers. Cats are expected to be scared away by the maximized and twisted images of themselves through reflections of water in the bottles. In order to keep the garbage spots clean, families which are using the same spot take turns to clean the spot every Monday, Thursday and Friday right after the garbage is collected. But for some spots, a net and bottles are not enough to keep the crows and cats away from the “delicious” garbage. In that case, garbage net cases have to be used. While the garbage net is provided for free by the government, the net cases must be purchased by funds gathered from the families which will be using the cases and some financial aid from the self-governed community. The only spot with net cases that I know so far is actually the spot next to my host family. According to my host mother, there are 23 families sharing this same garbage spot and thus the money needed to purchase the cases was divided by 23. But before anything can turn into reality, all families must come to the agreement that all of them are willing to have and pay for the cases.  The housewife who initiated the purchase went from door to door to introduce the advantages of the net cases and finally gained support from all 23 families.

Years ago, families do not need to communicate with each other in regard of their garbage. People in the neighborhood used to putting garbage right in front of their own houses. But in order to make it more convenient for the pick-up people, now nearby families gather their garbage in one single spot.

I learned a lot about the neighborhood from how people deal with garbage. It is an issue that is closely related to the common benefit of the neighborhood and the interactions between the residents, the self-governed community and the city government which require corporation from everyone.

日本。最初。印象。

Impression one

                It was at the Kansai International Airport that I spent my first night in Japan. I knew that I would need to spend a night at the airport because the pick-up service was not available the day I arrived. I thought that it would not be too bad staying at the airport for a night because it would be safe, clean and cool. It was indeed very safe and clean, but I was not able to sleep at all because it was too hot. In order to save electricity, the airport shut down the escalators, some lights and air conditioners around 2 am. The flash lights of the vending machines at the airport were not supposed to be on unless the machine was being used. The major reason for the airport to use as less as electricity is obvious. The influence of the 311 earthquake requires everywhere in Japan to work together so that the country can overcome the tragic. But I assume that even without the 311 earthquake, Japanese people have been always environmental friendly with a strong awareness of environmental issues since Japan is a land with scarce energy resources. Japanese people are trying to use the least energy in the best way.

Impression two

                Since I was sweating and unable to sleep, I frequently went to the toilet during my night at the airport so that I could wash my face and cool down a little bit. For me, the toilet was “friendly.” First of all, covers for toilet seats were provided so that people can use the toilet without worrying too much about being in contact of what the previous users may leave on the seat. But the most remarkable thing about the toilet at the airport is the small toilet seat designed for children. There are labels on the door showing that the small seat can be placed in the middle of the usual seat so that the hole will become small enough for children to use the toilet without the risk of falling into the toilet. This surprised me a lot because it was the first time I had ever saw toilet seats for children in public. And this made me believe that Japan is child-friendly country.

Toilet in Japan can also be very confusing to foreigners, but there are helpful instructions :

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ad8y-hys/movie.htm