Japanese summer kimono = yukata 浴衣

Did you know a summer kimono is not actually called a kimono, but a yukata?!  The main difference between the two is the weight and type of material.  Another significant difference is that a yukata is much easier to put on and doesn’t require the same under garments.  Also, the obi (bow) on a typical yukata is much smaller than that of a kimono.

Below, you can see the obi on the kimono is very large.  Incidentally, an obi serves as a belt.   You can also see that there is a dip around the nape of the neck.  This is the correct way to wear a kimono, you do not wear it sitting against the skin of the back of the neck.

 

Here you can see that it is much smaller and neater on the yukata.

It is hard to tell from the photos, but take my word for it – there is a big difference in the weight of the material, the yukata being much lighter.  The yukata is normally made of cotton. 

In the above picture you can also see the “geta”, wooden sandals that are traditionally worn with the yukata.  I am wearing the geta indoors as they were brand new and had never been worn outside, however, normally one never wears shoes in the house.  Another thing to note in the photo above is that the photo was taken in a tatami (straw mat) room and normally one shouldn’t even wear slippers in it!

Nowadays, a Japanese person or indeed a foreigner, will don a yukata in public for the summer festivals, particularly firework festivals. However, the most common sighting of a yukata in public is when a sumo wrestler is out and about.  Junior wrestlers wear the yukatas in public at all times and in the summer all other wrestlers tend to wear them frequently also.

The yukata is also often worn at traditional Japanese inns and/or hot springs.  In these circumstances the yukata is used like a dressing gown, allowing the guest/ customer to move around the premises in comfort.  The below picture was taken after bathing in a hot spring.  The photo was taken in the locker room as taking photos is prohibited in most hot springs.  Of course, the yukata provided are always spotlessly clean!

 

 

Japanese gift giving envelopes 御祝儀袋

In Japan, there is a particular style of envelope that is used to give a gift of money to an individual, couple or family.  There are envelopes for happy occasions, such as the birth of a new child, or for sad occasions, such as funerals (in Japan you give money for a funeral).  “Goshuugifukuro”, 御祝儀袋, refers to the former: an envelope used to present money in times of celebration.   The money is placed inside an envelope that is then wrapped in a decorative “envelope” or piece of paper folded in a certain way around the inner (money bearing) envelope.  The final touch is a bow or decoration wrapped around the outer paper. 

Below is a sample of some of the envelopes our wedding gifts were presented in.

  What’s missing from this envelope is the strip of paper that is normally inserted down the centre with the givers name on it.  Below you can see one with a partial showing of the strip, I had to fold it over to conceal the name of the giver!

  You can just about make out the “happy wedding” at the top of the strip.  The wire or ornate ribbon that goes around the paper is to stop the contents falling out. As mentioned above, the outer layer is not an envelope in the traditional sense, but a piece of paper folded in a certain way.  Therefore, the ribbon or wire serves a purpose as well as looking beautiful.

Any questions, please feel free…

Yours,

Mrs Nobukuni!!

Japanese women shave their forearms!

Women have a mutual unspoken pact not to reveal the truth of our beauty endeavours to men, but I break this pact for the sake of sharing insights into the Japanese people!

When I first came to Japan, I noticed how smooth Japanese people’s skins looked and observed with envy how their arms were completely hairless.  About six months later, I realised that it wasn’t a biological blessing.  While walking through Roppongi, two girls stopped my friends and I to complete a survey. The survey was about the beauty regimes of women.  The question that grabbed all of our attention was “Do you shave the hair on your arms?”  We all automatically, in our global naivety, squirmed and collectively said “oh no, that’s disgusting”.  The interviewers got very defensive and it was then that it dawned on me that some Japanese women shave their arms.   Eight years later I can say that, in my experience, a lot, if not the majority, of Japanese women do this!

Our interviewers went on to argue that if we shave our legs why not shave our arms?  They had/ have a point!

Musket shooting festival! 火縄銃祭

Japan is a country that really knows how to host and enjoy a festival.  Summer time is the main festival season, but you can enjoy festivals throughout the year.  In the summer, most cities will at least hold a firework festival and most also have some sort of flower or nature worshipping festival and other cultural festivals too.  I’ve been to a lot of festivals in my eight years, but today I thought I’d introduce you to one that isn’t mainstream and you may not even know it exists: the musket shooting festival!

The Musket shooting festival is held in different locations on different dates in Saitama.  Last year, 2007, we attended the Kawagoe Musket shooting festival in June.   As far as festivals go it is quite short.  The shooters parade through the crowd ceremoniously in their Samurai gear.  They position themselves in front of the crowds and shoot the muskets in to the air.  This is done a handful of times. Afterwards, the men in the costumes are available for photographs!

Preparing to shoot:

 

Shooting:

 Reloading:

2 Irish and an American with Samurai!:

A “Samurai” shows his gun:

A typical Japanese home

One of the questions I get asked many times, as a European living in Japan, is what do I think of the  houses here. The houses in Japan are indeed very different from anything I grew up with or viewed in other Western countries.  My first experience of a Japanese house was when I first came to Japan in 2000 and did a homestay for three months.  After that I lived in a company dormitory, followed by a stint in a modern apartment, to 2 years living in a “bedsit” (Japanese style) and finally myself and my husband bought a house in 2006.

The apartments, bedsits and company dormitory were all also very different, but it is the house that significantly differs from the Western equivalent.   For one, as much of Japanese society is based on the concept of “inside” and “outside”, this is also reflected in the structure of their homes.  Upon entering the home you encounter the “genkan”, or the nearest equivalent in English, the porch.  The porch is constructed at just above ground level and to enter the house you have to step up about one foot into the hallway. 

As you can see in the above picture there are two pairs of slippers in the hallway.  The reason for this is that when you enter a home in Japan you remove your shoes in the genkan.  You don’t have to wear the slippers, but you should ALWAYS wear socks when visiting a Japanese person’s home.  It is considered rude and unmannerly to go bare feet in a Japanese house.  There is a place to store shoes in the genkan, in the above photo you can just see the dark wood corner of the unit, to the left of the slippers.  The door that is adjacent on the left leads in to our dining room:

This is the dining room before we furnished it.  You can see a Japanese style computer desk in this photo (right hand side).  This type of computer desk requires the user to sit on the floor to be at the right level to use the keyboard.  On the top of the unit you may be able to see our telephone which is also a fax machine.  It is the norm in Japan to have a multi-purpose phone / fax / copier.  The sitting room is to the right of this photo, were  you can see the sliding doors.  This photo was taken from the kitchen:

In my opinion, the kitchen is most different to a Western home’s kitchen.  In Japan, by and large people don’t use ovens.  The main reasons for this are the expense of an oven and the difference in diets.  Our “cooker”, like most Japanese cookers, is made up of a grill and two rings.  We also have a rice cooker, “toaster oven” (much smaller than a conventional oven) and microwave for preparing food.  The kitchens are also generally much smaller than in the West and they would not be the “hearth” of the home.

The other room which is significantly different to Western homes is the “bathroom”.  In Japan, unlike the West, the bath has a room all of it’s own!  The toilet and hand basin usually in a separate room to the bath.

The bath is also much deeper and most baths come with a built in “heater” than can be used during your bath to reheat the water if it starts to go cold.

Off the bathroom, there is a “utility room” that is used for dressing as well as for laundry:

As you can see in this photo, the washing machine, on the left hand side, is top loading.  Another point of interest is that mainly the washing machines use cold water only. 

The toilet is usually in a room of it’s own.  Most toilets have the hand basin built in to them, above the cistern.   Also, a lot of toilets have built in functions such as seat warming and a bidet.  The controls can be seen on our toilet below, your left of the photo:

The other room of interest to non-Japanese people is the “tatami” room.  A tatami is a straw mat.  A tatami room can be made up of a number of tatami mats and to this day it is still how many people count the size of their houses.  We have two tatami rooms in our house.  One on the ground floor and one on the first floor.  Both are six tatami size:

Lastly, what may be of interest is that Japanese people don’t have house alarms and while they have shutters on their windows and sliding doors this is for more of a practical rather than safety function.  If you have any questions about Japanese homes or would like to see more photos, please do not hesitate to ask me in a comment.

Yours,

Mrs Nobukuni!!

(All photos were taken by and are registered to Mrs Nobukuni as of April 2006).

Update on the June 14th Earthquake in Japan

On Saturday June 14th at 8.43am, local time, a powerful earthquake rocked Northern Japan.  The quake registered 7.2 at it’s epicentre and hit with force in Miyagi and Iwate.  As of the 7am news (Monday June 16th) on NHK, Japan’s national television channel, nine people have been confirmed dead with a further eleven people still unaccounted for.

A lot of damage was done near the epicentre, where part of the mountain was swallowed up, landslides coveted roadways, houses were torn assunder and cracks have appeared in many surfaces.  Many people have been displaced or are too afraid to return to their homes.  The response from the public sector has been speedy and more than adequate. The armed forces as well as local state aid services have been working around the clock to locate missing persons, transport the injured & the fragile, clear roads & mountain passageways, and provide support and safety to the hundreds affected by the earthquake.

There have already been confirmed reports of “miracle” close-calls.  One that has intrigued the nation is the survival of every single passenger on a bus that dropped kilometres down a mountain side.  The bus slid down the mountain side when the road below it collapsed.  Only ten of the twenty plus passengers reported any injuries.  Stories such as this continue to flood in and there is still hope that the nine missing persons can be located.

 

You can now see yourself how you truly are!

While watching a Japanese TV quiz show tonight, they showed an innovative product: a mirror that reflects your real image and shows you yourself as your seen by others.  This amazing development is designed in such a way that unlike most mirrors it does not reflect you back from the reverse angle, therefore even if you hold words up in front of it it will show those words as they are – not in reverse order as in a regular mirror.

Don’t know about you, but I find that quite fascinating!!