10 Holidays

  Now, Japanese people are suffering from 10 consecutive holidays! ?
  In Japan, there is a consecutive holiday called Golden Week in early May.
Usually only 3 consecutive holidays will be from May 3rd to 5th.
However, in this year, April 30th, May 1st and May 2nd became national holidays
because the era changes this year. And furthermore, people who become holidays
for up to 10 consecutive holidays because April 27 and 28 are holidays because of Saturday and Sunday and special holidays are also on 29th.
  Many people go on a trip using this long vacation.
  However, everybody hopes to enjoy a trip at the leisure spot, so it is impossible to travel
if you have not booked a hotel for quite a long time.
  Perhaps there is only one such opportunity in life.

  Generally speaking, Japanese people work seriously, I imagine some people feel unconfortable
to spend this 10 holidays. Some people may feel stressed that they can not do anything and can not spend meaningfully. Actually, if you are working as part time job staff, you won't get money
while you are not working. So, I heard on TV that those who are working as part time job staff,
they are not welcomed this long holidays.

Sakura Saku

Now, Sakura is during the best season in my hometown!

The era of "Reiwa" started.

In Japan, there was a huge event today. There may be some people who know in the news. The era of Heisei, which has been used so far, has changed. In Japan, there are two ways of expressing the date, the Christian era and the era symbol. The era changes every time the Emperor changes. The history of the era is old, and more than a thousand years ago, Japanese have used the era. In the history classes of Japan, we learn various eras in the text book.
The present emperor is retired, and the son is to be crowned May 1 of this year. Today, the name of the new era era was announced today. The new era is said to be "Reiwa." "Rei" seems to have the meaning of "fine". "Wa" has a meaning of harmony. We often use the era in our daily life. So far, it has been said that Chinese historical books have often been used to refer to the first issue, but this time it was created by combining the kanji characters that appeared in the oldest songbook called "Manyoshu" in Japan.
The emperor of the Heisei era has dedicated to peace activities, and I thought that it was a good emperor.

Stomack should be 80%

In Japan, there is a word, Hara(stomach) Hachibunme(80%). I hear that this is a word in a book written in the Edo period. When you eat, you shoud not eat until you get full, you should stop at about 80%. By doing so, it seems that you can maintain good health. The average life span of Japanese people is known to be long. I introduced Japanese saying.
Can you tolerate 80%?

Miso pan (bread)

  Miso bread is sold in my hometown. This is something that contains miso in the bread. I think that many people know miso soup, but few people know miso bread. Actually, even Japanese people may not know miso bread so much. My wife is from a nearby prefecture, but I did not know miso bread. My son likes miso bread and eats it well.
 An article may be posted on this blog about once a week.

Kindergarten

   My child has turned 3 years old. From April this year, kindergarten will begin. It is supposed to be in kindergarten or nursery school before elementary school. Japanese parents have to choose between entering kindergarten or putting them into nurseries from an earlier age after the child is 3 years old. In recent years, Japanese economy is not good, so parents of dual acts have increased. There are also such circumstances, it seems that there are many parents to put in nursery school. In my home, we decided to put it in kindergarten from the idea that we want my son to have as long as possible contact time with his mother. My wife has no friends around my house. Because parenting stress tends to accumulate, I think that she can make as many friends as possible after children enter kindergarten.
In Japan, kindergarten starts in April. Elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools and other schools all begin in April. The time when school begins may vary from country to country. As the cherry blossoms are in full bloom in April, Japanese people think of the scenery where cherry blossoms bloom when it says entrance ceremony.
When writing this sentence, I used the Google's translation function. I found some words that I needed to correct. But almost of all sentenses may be OK.

Happy New Year!!

Hello, this blog is still alive.


  Today was the day when we eat special rice in our culture.


The name of the rice is "Nana kusa gayu".


I have already introduced the culture before.

   There are seven kinds of vegetables in the rice. We eat it


so that we do not have a cold in this season.


   I did not give it to my son because I was not sure if it's


OK as baby food.


  The rice has no taste. So, the taste is not good. You may


add some salt or soy sauce if you like.

My child was born.

My child was born last month.
I will write something interesting while we raise up him.

In Japan, when a mother has a baby, the hospital gives
her "umbilical cord" if you ask for, as the commemoration.

It seems to be unique to Japanese culture.

Do you have such a culture in your culture?

And parents put it in the box of paulownia wood.

We did so.

However, umbilical cord looks strange.

When people have a child, people visit a shrine to pray for child's

health a few month later.

We are planning to visit to a neighbor shrine in March or April.

The end of the year

  This year is about to end. The public office, such as
city hall is open until 28th December.
  In this season, people are very busy.
  In Japan, we have a custom of sending a post card,
called ''Nenga-jou''
to your friends, relatives, co-wokers, and so on at
the beginning of the year. It is a sort of greeting card.
 If your friend live outside  of your prefecture, you have
 to post your post cards until 25th so the cards arrive
on 1st January.
   It's good oppotunity to say hello to your friends
who you haven't talked to for a long time.
  There days, there are some TV shows that introduce
big news in this year.


  We say, ''Yoi otoshi wo!!(Have a good New Year)''
 when you say good-bye to someone.

A photo of the countryside in Japan

  When you visit an unknown place, sometimes you may find a nice scenery.
It may not be a historical place but a just a simple road.
  One day, I found a road.
  It was just a simple road.
  But it seemed to be something warm in my heart.

Japanese traditional culture Inu no hi mairi Visit on Dog's day

Hello, it's been a while.

I went to the shrine in my town. The reason is that my wife has gotten

pregnant. We visited this shrine to pray for the fortune.

Dog has a lot of babies. So it is said that dog is the God of

giving birth. 

Foreign Tourists in Japan

  Japanese tour industries are trying to increase the
number of tourists from abroad.
  Chinese tourists buy tons of Japanese goods
when they come to Japan. Now, Japanese people
do not consume like Chinese. Therefore,  home
electric appliance shop and other stores rely on
their buying power.
  The number of foreing tourists have increased
tremendously because Japanese government
has shifted the plicy.
  On the other hand, some troubles have happend
between Japanese resident and foreign tourists.
  This is because of the difference of common sense
between cultures. I watched the news about the problem.
I saw Japanese who are complaining about the garbage
foreign tourists throw away.
  And in my impression, foreing people tend to speak loudly
in public compared to Japanese people.
  I think such difference of consciousness cause the problem
between Japanese and foreign tourists.
  I think this kind of problem often happen everywhere
in the world.
  


 

Japanese democracy

  This year is 70th anniversary since WW2 ended in 1945.
8th August was the day of end of the war. (I heard that
the anniversary of the end of the war is different in each country)
  The idea of "democracy" came from Europe more than 100 years ago.
  However, as the voting rate at the election is always low(less than 50%),
many Japanese people do not take an action politically.
  Probably, because Japanese people is disappointed with
most of the politicians, they think no one can change the situation.

  However, the circumstances are changing little by little.
The biggest issue we are facing now is "Security-related bills".
This law is under discussion at the House of Councilors.
  If this bill is passed, the Self-Defense Forces of  Japan
gains the legal grounds of dispatching the troops in abroad
as the collective right to self-defense".
  "The collective right to self-defense" is the right to attack
the army because the allied nation is attacked by the country.
  If the Japanese army did that, Japan may be involved with
the battle in other country.
  Japanese people who say "No!" are increasing.
  People are showing the rejection of the bills
through demo.
As Japanexperienced the terrible situation after
the war, the  persistence to the peace is
veeeeeeeery strong.
In my opinion, Japan must assist other countries
not through military assistance but through building infrastructures,
educational aid, or technical aid. That assistance would
prevent from involving the war.
 
  I have the legal background. So, this time, I tried to write an essay
 on my field in English. After I learn English words related on
my field, I try to write about social problem in Japan.
 


  I have
 

Japanese lifestyle It has been very hot in Japan now.

  It has been very hot in Japan now.
The temperature is often more then 38 degree.
The plants in the garden may die if you water them.
However, as the outside temperature becomes very high,
you have to do such work early in the morning.
Today, I watered plants in the garden at 5:30 a.m.
 
  From 13th August to 16th August, it is the special period
in Japan. It is called Obon. People in urban area like Tokyo,
go back to their hometown and spend hours with their parents.
Children spend their grandfather and grandmother during this
period. It is said that the soul of the ancestor come back
to the family only in this period. This custom comes from the
idea of Buddhism.
  I think I have already introduced this Obon before on this blog.

  I go to the Tochigi prefecture where my wife's parents and
relatives live. It is about 2.5 hours by car from my hometown.

Japanese lifestyle ~A report card~

The long summer vacation has started in school.

They get the school report from their teacher at the end of the

term.

I talk about the way to evaluate students in Japanese school.

I don't know well about the other schools.　

In my school case(elementary school), the kinds of subject were,

Japanese, Math, Science, Social study, Physical Education(P.E.), Music

Drawing and manual arts, Moral education.

Nowadays, elementary students start to learn English.

There was no English class when I was in elementary school.

Generally, we do not  learn  anything about religion.

If the school was private and  related certain religion, students

may have the class of religion. Japanese public school keep the

rule of the separation of religion and public service.

I  guess, the summer vacation of children are not longer than the

other countries'.  It starts from about 18th July and end 31st August.

So, it is one and a half month. I have heard that students have

more than 2 month in abroad. And they don't have assignments.

As you can guess, Japanese school assign students a lot of

homework during summer vacation.

  However, most of students play freely until the end of the

summer vacation. And they have a hard time, noticing the

tons of task are still remained.

  I used to be one of such students when I was in school.
  

Japanese food(drink) ~Mugi cha ( wheat tea)~

 Japanese green tea may be famous in the world.
But mugi cha (wheat tea) is also popular in the summer.
I think people drink more often when they have lunch or dinner.
  In our house, we always keep wheat tea in a bottle in the
refrigerator. It's more reasonable in cost.

  I  have an examination on 11,12th July. So, I stop posting articles
until that time.
  Sorry.

The short trip in Gunma

  Now, Japan is in the long vacation, called "Gorden week".
I have a holiday from on 2nd May, to 6th May.
  Many people go abroad or go to a tourist resort.
I went to a Miyogi shrine in my prefecture, Gunma.
This shrine was constructed around 537.
Usually, there are some very big and old trees at shrine.
The stairs were so steep. So it was hard to go to the main building.
  The visit at this shrine made me relax.
  Maybe, it is very important to be relax in order to
do good performance at your job and your study.
  As you see, Japanese people have worshiped not only God(Kami)
but nature since old ages.
(I used the word Kami on purpose. In Japan, the concept of "God" is different
from other religion, such as Christian.)

This is a barrier in Edo period.

In 400 years ago, people could not move from one prefecture to the other prefecture

freely. The government banned people from bringing in the Edo area(Around Tokyo).

The government officials checked at this checkpoint. 

Don't cut your nail at night !! ~Japanese superstition~

Some people say, "Don't cut your nail at night !!''


This is a superstition in Japan.


"Or you will not be present at your parent's death."
"Or you will die at an early age."


Every superstition does not have a ground.


However, I sometimes hear this superstition.


Anyway, in Japanese, there is a saying "A skilled hawk hides its talons."


Do you have this kind of saying in your culture???

Japanese traditional culture Hina doll part 2

I  have introduced about Hina doll before.

  The 3rd, March was the day of Hina doll.
This is the day for girls. We have a song for this special day.
 
  We eat sushi on this day, I would like to introduce "Temari zushi".
It's special kind of sushi. I think this kind of sushi have not been
introduced in abroad.

  Do you notice the shape of the sushi is round.
This shape comes from the image of "Temari"
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%89%8B%E3%81%BE%E3%82%8A#mediaviewer/File:Japanese_folk_art;_Temari%EF%BC%9B%E6%89%8B%E9%9E%A0.jpg
  This idea is nice. I do not know who made this kind of sushi first.

  I could buy this at supermarket on 3rd March.
 

Japanese lifestyle The house work and international marriage

  It is said Japanese culture is the mascline culture.
I agree. Japan is the male-dominate society.
  In Japan, the cities, towns, and villages that have
the law related to the gender eaquality, are 28.6% in 2012.
And the Gunma prefecture (my hometown) is 8.6%.
  My hometown is located in local area. And it is known that
people in Gunma is conservative.
  Maybe, one of the reason why Japan has not been developed enough
is the gender gap that still remains in Japanese society.
I think is is not easy for women to advance in some companies still now.
  Interestingly, I hear Japanese woman gets married with western cultural
man more often than the case Japanese man gets married with western
cultural woman. Japanese men  do not know how to behave in the
lady-first way.  Women in the western culture may not look Japanese men atractive. I am not sure.










  However, I help my wife with washing dishes on weekend.
And I often wash bath tub on weekdays.
  In some cases, the wife who manages family finance
controls the husband.
  Actually, my friend was blamed for expending money by
his wife after he gets married.
  And his wife started to control his family budget.
He always obeys his wife. (He has two dauters and says he has spent a happy life.) ^ ^;
  There are many cases in Japanese family.