My Life In a Suitcase!

My Life In a Suitcase!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

成人の日 Coming of Age Day

成人の日
Coming of Age Day

Seijin no hi, coming of age day in Japan is celebrated on the second monday of January. This day celebrates all the young people who turned 20 that year. In Japan, turning 20 is when one becomse an adult. At the age of 20, Japanese can vote, drink, and smoke. 

The coming of age day in Japan is a national holiday and is celebrated all over Japan. Young people are encouraged to become self-reliant adults with the coming of this holiday.  Usually for this celebration, there is a large gathering of all the young people and their families and the mayor will give a traditional speech. However, in recent years these traditions have been breaking in the sense that the young people are very disruptive during the speeches and sometimes go outside to blow off fireworks instead.  

The young women get very dolled up for this event. Kimono's(furisode), up-do hair styles, and lots of make up. While the young men usually wear suits; though, the more 'yankee' (a.k.a. punks) will wear their kimonos as well.  

Before the age of consent was decided on back in 1876, boys became adults at the age of 15 and their forelocks would be cut. The woman would become adults at 13 or so and their teeth were then dyed black. However now the age of legal adulthood is 20 and they party instead of downgrade their looks.

Some beautiful young ladies in their furisode's! which are the kimono's but different in that their designs are more intricate and the sleeves long and the furry thing. 

The men in suits which is most common, and sometimes in their kimono's :)


Wednesday, February 5, 2014

節分Setsubun! Throwing Beans and Burning stuff

 節分Setsubun




Setsubun's is celebrated on February 3, or 4 which is the beginning of the spring, according to the Japanese lunar calender. Meaning, 'seasonal division' setsubun is a special holiday in Japan that is widely celebrated. 

Before I explain the demons and the beans and the burning of shit I must say that I participated in setsubun in Nagasaki, Japan. Holidays in other parts of Japan differ sometimes and some of the things I did in Nagasaki may not happen in Honshu or Hokkaido. 

Setsubun is the time of year that you buy some beans, give your kids demon masks, and pelt them with beans. Back in the day, people would throw beans at demons to drive them away and with the evil spirits gone, good fortune would come your way. 

However, these evil spirits can be driven away with loud noises like the taiko drums, and from the smoke of burning wood. 

"Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!"
Demon's out! Happiness in!

As you yell this and throw around the beans, afterwards you are supposed to eat as many beans as your age. However, I didn't see anyone do this :/ but that could be another case of Japan half-assing their culture. 


 A bunch of monks set up this and prayed for the demons to vacate the premises.

While they're asking the demons to leave people take it upon themselves to burn items in their house that may bring bad spirits in or if they missed trash day. 









Last but not least, it got wild.