Japanese traditional culture ~37~ invitation card

  The bride and groom have to make invitation cards for the guests.
These are the cards that we chose.
These look Japanese old stylish cards, ha?
  I had to write addressees with a writing brush.
I usually don't use such a brush, so it was kind of hard for me to do the work.

I heard some people don't prepare for these cards if you can tell the
beginning time easily. That's for saving money.

Thanks for reading.

• www.facebook.com/SeeMyJapan

Japanese traditional culture ~36~ having a lunch

  I went to a Japanese restaurant with my a fiancée and her family.

This Japanese restaurant was typical of Japanese restaurant.

The dishes looked so nice.

  The bottle is Japanese traditional alchohol, called Syoutyuu.

Syoutyuu is made from wheat.

Japanese traditional culture ~35~ seats at the wedding

  Now I have started to decide the seats of my wedding reception.
This work is not easy though.
  In Japan culture, there is a seat, called Kamiza.
It is a seat of honor. Probably, there is this kind of seat in other culture.
At the wedding reception, the seat of honor is the one which is the closest
in the room.

  The paper is upside down!! ^ ^;  I couldn't attach well.
The wedding planer explained well. This paper shows the order of seats.
There is a main table(メインテーブル) below.
  And you have to take care of how to write each person's title, such as
"groom's friend", "groom's co-worker""The president of a company"....
Usually, we need to write those titles on a seat and provide it for the guests.

I heard of a interesting story.
  It is occasionally happen the groom invites his co-worker
after he quit a company. And if the guest was the elder and senior person,
it is hard to decide his title. It is hard to write "groom's friend".
Because, if the guest is so old(50～60 years old),
writing "groom's friend"seems to be disrespectful in Japanese culture.

 If the groom was still working at the same workplace, his title could be
written as "Duryou　同僚"which means "co worker".
 But the groom had already quit his company, he would not be able to
write in that way.

 Anyway, in my case, I would not have so many troubles when I write guest's
titles.
  I have to finish this work by 13th October.

Japanese traditional culture ~34~ traveling expenses

  In Japanese culture, we have a tradition of providing traveling expenses
for the guests. When you invite a friend who is living far from the
wedding ceremony, you need to provide a lot.
  The amount of the expenses should be odd number in my region such as
10000 yen, 3000 yen or 5000 yen.
  And if you had been invited by the guest's wedding, the traveling expenses
would be provided almost the same amount.

  I want to know if there is this kind of tradition in your culture.

Japanese lifestyle ~67~typhoon

  During this season, the typhoon is the great worry to us.
Today is my holiday. But typhoon is coming near my hometown.
It's so raining now. And very strong wind is blowing outside.
  Every year we count the number of typhoon, like
Ｔａｉｈｕｕ(typhoon) 1 gou(gou　号),２　gou, 3 gou...
 The unit is "gou" when you count the number of typhoon.
And the typhoon which is coming now is 18 gou.
  If you are living along the coast, it's very dangerous during season.
Maybe there are some lives are lost every year.

Japanese lifestyle ~66~ NOZOMI

  When I went to Kansai area, I got on a shinkansen, named NOZOMI.
As you may know, it's so fast train.
  When you are on train, you'll see some sales staffs who are selling
some foods and drinks. She behave so politely in the train like
cabin attendants.

  When you have a chance to get on NOZOMI, you should see the
garbage collectors. Their technique of cleaning is excellent. They clean
so quickly, and behave politely. They have only ten minutes to clean
the inside of train. But they always complete their jobs.
I think there are no garbage cleaners like them in the world.
I am thinking they should be respected.
The garbage cleaners may be prejudiced. But the cleaners of NOZOMI have
sophisticated skills.

Japanese traditional culture ~33~A gift for the guests. Hikidemono ひきでもの（引き出物）

 Usually, bride and groom give some gifts for the guests of his and her wedding.
The number of the gifts should be the odd number in my region.
But it seems that the region of my friend doesn't have such tradition.
Because I got two kinds of gifts at his wedding.
This is the photo of Shin Osaka station which is near Osaka.
(It's pretty far from my hometown. It took more than 5 hours by train)

The bride and groom broke the top of sake barrel.

  These are the gifts from the bride and groom called Hikidemono.

  One of the gifts was a baumkuchen(it's Germany).
The image is Mt. Fuji.

And the other was Ramen bowl and a ramen.
This gift is interesting. You get only bowls. And you choose the ramen
you want to eat and send a mail. You'll get the ramen a few days later.
You can eat ramen with the bowls from the bride and groom.
I have already known this kind of gift before.
Each ramen on catalog is famous one in each region in Japan, from Hokkaido
to Kagoshima(southen region).

Japanese traditional culture ~32~wedding.

I joined my friend's wedding yesterday. I need to get on the train and shinkansen
for more than 5 hours. The ceremony was held in Kobe, which is located in the
west of Osaka. It's so far from my hometown!

Each couple has each own style...
I saw a Kagami biraki there.

 The bride and (bride)groom bloke the lid of sake barrel together
with the wooden hammer. People drank the sake(alchohol) after that.
This is the crane.

I got a message from the groom. The message card was on this crane.

I took some photos but I have no time to introduce those pictures now.
See you later. I will write more later.

Japanese lifestyle ~65~ the service of bridal

 

  I was impressed to know that there are various services when you have wedding.

To keep a bouquet as a memento, there are services. The top of the picture

is a pressed flower. If you ask for, they make a pressed flower by the bouquet

you use at your wedding. And next one is a box in the bouquet. They explained

that we can keep the bouquet almost forever without rotting. They do special

processing for the bouquet.

  Well, there are many kinds of services, actually. But each service costs so much.

Maybe these services like above cost more than 30000 yen.

  We need to think of the appropriate expenses.



Japanese lifestyle ~64~A bridal fair

Today, I went to a bridal fair.
There are so many choices in each customs of wedding.
For example, about meal, you can choose from Western style
or Western&Japanese style. And then there are some grades from
12000yen ~16000yen for each person.

  And as I am telling on this blog that Japanese culture is gift giving culture,
the couple need to prepare for some gifts to appreciate those who joined the
wedding. Here are those photos of gifts.
 

 We have to discuss which gift is the best for relatives or friends...
Because there are too many choices, it is hard to decide. Each gift was
about 3000 yen. It was not expensive than I expected.
   It is said that the number of the gift should be an odd number, such as
3,5,7.  Because an even number can be divided. There is a superstitious meaning.

This is Katsuobushi. (dried bonito shavings) There is a meaning of good luck.

I found a wrapped gift like rabbit's ear. The cloth is Japanese traditional cloth,
called furoshiki.

These are tiny gifts for guest. Can you believe? These are toilet papers...

Here is a make-up corner.

There are more than 10 kinds of choices for album.

I got tired to see these things. It is hard to choose from these varieties.