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.

Japanese expression ~14~ Tongue twister 早口言葉（はや くち こと ば）

  I have heard the English tongue twister.
She sells sea shells by the seashore.
Yesterday, I heard the tongue twister on radio like below.
"a cup of proper coffee in a proper copper coffee cup"
  I introduce some famous Japanese tongue twisters.

なまむぎ　なまごめ　なまたまご　（生麦　生米　生卵）
namamugi  namagome  namatamago
raw  wheat,  raw rice, raw egg

となりの　きゃくは　よく　かきくう　きゃくだ　（隣の客はよく柿食う客だ）
tonarino kyakuwa  yoku kakikuu  kyakuda
the guest of neighbor often eat persimmons

I found a funny phrase on Internet.
こつそしょうしょう　そしょう　しょうそ
kotsusosyousyou   sosyou  syouso
It means,  won the suit for the osteoporosis
I can't pronounce this one.

Japanese traditional culture ~31~ marrige

Well, I will get married in December this year.
I've got some topics on marriage of Japanese people.
I will write something about it from September.

You can see the Japanese kimono right side on this picture.

Japanese traditional culture ~30~ Ｆａｎ Sensu せんす 扇子

  These are fans which can be folded. If you come to Japan in the summer,
you will experience so hot temperature. Using this fan, called "sensu"
could be one of the ways to cool down your body. But, these tools are
not so popular in daily life nowadays, I think. I don't often see the people
who are using these stuffs. I often see these stuffs at souvenir shop.

  When I went to Germany two years ago, I bought the left one. It was because
I wanted to show someone this. I thought this kind of stuff would be
unusual for European. But I did not have a chance to do that.
  The left one was not cheap... Maybe it costed about 2000 yen.
I think it's good quality. It has a dragon's drawing.

昇　means "rise (to the sky)".
龍  means dragon.

I am trying to write something. The work I wrote during the bon vacation
was 27 papers. If I entry the competition, I would need to write more than
50 papers at least. The long story should be more than 100 papers...
Oh, I need more training....