Danjiri Festival

Religion in Japan is varied throughout the ideals of Shinto, Buddhism and Christianity. Their religions are useful throughout life, as they use Shinto as a religion to come into the world. Next, they'll use Christianity as their wedding religion. And to exit the world, they will use Buddhism.

Trying to please their gods, they will set up festivals. This festival is in preparation for the planting and farming season for good crops.

This festival consists of amazingly big wooden carts being pulled through the city. There are many festivals with danjiri (the name of the cart), but the most popular one being in the city of Kishiwada. The carts are carved wood with many designs on it, a couple in particular is a dragon and a shrine. At night the carts are dragged through the city, but during the day they're ran through the city at dangerous speeds.

A notable item with this festival is that the Japanese have a homogeneous society. With this homogeneous society, there seems to be an unwritten set of rules that you don't want to stick out. This particular festival I've heard that they've loosened their grips at times, this being one of those times.

Introducing Tadahiko Hayashi!!

© Tadahiko Hayashi courtesy of Studio Equis

From his birth Tadahiko was destined it would seem to be a photographer. Born in Yamaguchi in Japan to Ishi Hayashi who also was already a famous photographer, and she even taught Shin'ichi, Tadahiko's father. After Shin'ichi and Ishi's divorce, Tadahiko stayed with his mother, and he grew up learning from his mother the art. One of the factors that led to his being famous is his candid pictures of Jun'ichirou Tanizaki. His pictures depicting the city life are also another popular set. This set even being in an anthropology book in the 1980's. After his starting candid photos became the norm, he then started to tweak his style to be flawless. This led to some staging of the photos at times. In the 1950's he also worked in America with the Miss Universe contest. In the 1980's Tadahiko started traveling around Japan preparing a few photography books. At the same time he also was working as the principal of a photography school. 1985 is the year that Tadahiko announced he had liver cancer, and released one more photography book, Toukaidou. This book was published just two months before his death. He passed away in 1990. His works can now be seen in the Shunan City Museum of Art and History.

Photo taken from: http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4636:light-and-shade-images-of-post-war-japan-&catid=21:culture&Itemid=165
Photo by: Tadahiko Hayashi
Title: Boys from 1946

Spare Time in Japan

Being in Japan, and experiencing their ways of entertainments, for me, has been surprising. Being on the train on my weekly train ride, or on the overnight bus to Tokyo, there's always about 50% of the people within eyesight reading a manga, playing their Nintendo DS, or even listening to their constantly changing popular songs on an I Pod. Another popular item are their rhythm games, Taiko no Tatsujin, Pop'n Music, Dance Dance Revolution, or even Ouendan. Ouendan is even on the Nintendo DS. Ouendan has been released in America under the name of Elite Beat Agents. Manga has been very popular here for quite a while, the more popular they are here the more likely they will be released in America. One of the biggest mangas being Dragonball, which started in 1984. This manga is still being sold here in brand new editions. Then listening to new music in America, it's played for about 2 months and your sick of hearing it. Here in Japan, their popular music changes roughly on a bi-weekly basis, but there are also artists who have been in the music business for some time also. For example: Utada Hikaru, Ayumi Hamasaki, Greeeen. Greeeen hasn't actually been around for long, but they did a song kiseki that stayed on the Japanese charts for quite a few weeks. Utada Hikaru is famous even in America because of the Kingdom Hearts games as she has done the opening themes to both of the Playstation games.

A few band's fansites:
http://ayumi.primenova.com/
http://islandrecords.com/site/promo/splash/utada/

Greeeen's music video for kiseki.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogEKEAGcCBg

Seeing the City I Live in! Hirakatashi

There are two major differences that I've seen in Japan that America hasn't embraced. One being that even though there are cars, public modes of transportation seem to be more popular. The other difference being that karaoke is very different from the average karaoke bar in America.

Trains in Japan are incredibly popular, you should see the 5 o'clock trains, they're always standing room only. Another difference being that areas around the station are actually seem to be quite high priority areas for shops, foods, bus stops, and taxis. Also, buses are more popular than in America.

Karaoke is a favorite of many Japanese and tourists. In America there are karaoke bars: however, going to a Japanese karaoke room, a group of people go together and get a room for the group, whereas the karaoke bars are just a stage. I think the Japanese karaoke rooms have a less intimidating feeling.

Japanese Families

This weekend I had the pleasure of being a guest in my friend's family's house. I've started trying to immerse myself into the Japanese society to start having a greater grip on the language, as I've been in Japan for about eight months. But this weekend was special not only being the first time I've seen this family since I got to Japan, but also because this family had a grandchild born since I've been in here. The Japanese have a ceremony just typically inside their own house, where they will start to teach the child about non-bottled means of feeding, called in Japanese "okuizome." This literally means "start eating." They do this ceremony 100 days after the baby is born. The baby gets to try maybe a taste of all of these items, but never actually eats. The main dish at this ceremony is a whole cooked fish. Other items on the typical menu include clear soup, stewed food, also including one thing pickled to help for strong teeth. All served in a dinnerware that is red inside and black outside. The family also makes a moderately extravagant meal consisting of sushi, salad, shrimp, cake, and so on. This tradition started around the Heian Period.


This is other information about the ceremony and also shows the same tradition held by a family now living in the United States.
http://www.vjcc.com/cc_05-06.htm

The Landing of the Plane

Above Photo from: http://www.japanorama.com/images/Hinomaru_364x254.gif

Thats where it started... My studies in the land of the rising sun, that is. No knowledge of the language and no information regarding the currency system. Before I was fully on my own in Osaka, I learned the currency denominations since I was going to be on my own for two days, and it was quicker than learning the language in a few minutes. You can change your money at the airport when you get off the plane. The Denominations are from top left to bottom right. 1 Yen, 5 yen, 10 yen, 50 yen, 100 yen, and then finally 500 yen. The other picture is of their 2000 yen bill which is rare according to most Japanese people. Other bills include the 1000 yen, 5000 yen, and 10000 yen.








For planning ahead, your trip to Japan:
www.x-rates.com

And to find your way to the Osaka area, the airports in the area:
www.flyatn.com/airports/osaka.asp
www.japan-guide.com/e/e2433.html