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What I Love about Japan
Part 1: An insider's view of Japanese Traditions
Story & Photos By: Lala Bevilacqua
Anime, sushi, geishas, robots and slightly sadistic game shows of people in embarrassing costumes being knocked off rickety bridges by golden balls and rolled over by enormous foam boulders are what seem to define the image of Japan in the minds of the uninitiated. No doubt, these are all parts of the expansive collage that makes Japan what it is, but to understand the big picture you have to see it unfold before your own eyes. I know it’s pretty intimidating to jump into a foreign culture with foreign people speaking a foreign language, but here’s the first part of a little guide from a native that might help assuage your travel jitters. Be sure to pick up the next issue of Desert Lifestyle or visit www.mccs29palms.com for more insider tips on Japanese Culture.
New Year
At the end of every year, I take the long journey back to my hometown in the middle of Tokyo to spend New Year with my family. The Japanese New Year is like a conglomeration of new and old traditions with an underlying religious basis. We are welcoming the New Year god into our homes and community to pray for a good coming year. It begins with a massive house cleaning to purify the home for welcoming in the New Year god. Shrines and temples across the country partake in this ritual as well. In the more traditional homes, a few days before New Year’s Day, women begin cooking and assembling the osechi-ryori, a three or five-leveled box stuffed with foods that each symbolize something that brings luck. For example, the boiled shrimp or lobster signifies longevity because the long whiskers and the bent back evoke the image of an old man. The herring roe, with its hundreds of tiny eggs, symbolizes fertility and a long bloodline. Today, many homes order their osechi-ryori from stores and restaurants to give the mothers a break. On New Year’s Eve, Japanese traditionally eat toshikoshi-soba (“year-bridging noodle” usually made of buckwheat) to pray for a thin, long life.
Generally, Japanese celebrate the New Year on New Year’s Day, but in recent years, many Japanese have begun going out on the town New Year’s Eve. Practically every area is crowded. Going to a club or bar for a New Year’s countdown is like readily walking into a stampede of wildebeest, so be wary and watch your toes. Home is where the heart is on New Year’s Day. There’s nowhere else that feels just right then being home with family, gorging yourself on osechi and sake, (which, by the way, is pronounced sa-ke like ke-ttle, not the commonly mispronounced variation, sa-kee).
New Year is also a time of elaborate communication through mass mailing of New Year greeting postcards or nengajo, usually decorated with the specific animal the New Year falls under in the Chinese zodiac. Depending on how popular you are or on the status of your job position, you may receive anywhere from a few postcards to several large bundles barely held together with rubber bands. The good news for the less socially inclined? The less you receive, the less you probably had to send out. Among the younger generations, and usually only between friends, New Year’s texting is a less arduous alternative, resulting in an electronic traffic jam around midnight.
On New Year’s Day, crowds of Japanese people troop to the nearest shrine or temple to pay their respect to the New Year god and to pray for a good year. The crowd can be overwhelming if you’re not used to making your morning commute packed into a train car like circus clowns in a telephone booth. The culmination of the process after all that standing and shuffling is when you get to throw money at the gods in return for hearing your prayers.
Obon
The Japanese worship their dead…a lot. Ancestral worship is an integral part of the Japanese society. We like to think of our dearly passed as being relatively easily accessible. Obon is a three-day period usually on Aug. 13 through 16. The Japanese people celebrate their dead and welcome their deceased loved ones back into the home for a short reunion of sorts. Eliminate any morbid images of decomposing walking dead banging on the doors and windows late at night; the Japanese cremate their dead, so our ancestors return in spirit.
The basis of Obon stems from the teachings of Buddhism, but is also influenced by old Shinto teachings of ancestral worship, particularly in the ceremonial aspects of the event. Before the 13th, the house is cleaned, especially the family shrine inside the home, to purify and to welcome the ancestor. A temporary shrine is erected with offerings like sake and rice for the ancestor to come home to. This temporary shrine is used rather than the family shrine to show separation from everyday life. Little horses are made from cucumbers with toothpick legs to carry the deceased home swiftly to their waiting family. A small fire is made outside the entrance of the house as a guiding light for the ancestors to find their way. In places where the family graves are located close to the home, the man of the house will light a lantern at the ancestors’ resting place and lead them back to the home. The ancestors reside in the temporary shrine for three days and depart back to their world on the 16th, this time on a cow made of eggplant and toothpicks for a slow return. During Obon, many communities have festivals with food vendors and games, as in the omatsuri, with the addition of the structured bon-odori (the bon dance). A tall stage is 
erected where the singer and the taiko drummers play and women, children and men in their yukata dance in layers of circles around the stage in one of many ritualistic dances. There are several theories on what the bon-odori signifies. Some say the dancing represents the joy of the dead who are able to reach nirvana while the living worship. Others say it’s a form of worshipping our ancestors and sending off the dead who have no family to honor them. Still others say we draw the returned ancestors into the midst of the dance for a goodbye send-off with a bang.
The world has so many manufactured images of Japan. Separating truth from fiction becomes difficult. In many ways, Japan is one of those places that could be everything you dreamed of or nothing you expected. How do you place a finger on exactly what is most alluring about the country? Is it the traditions? The conglomeration of old and new? The variation of high-tech city to lush countryside? The beating of yamato damashii (the spirit of the Japanese) in the soul of every generation? Maybe it’s just the overall feeling that you could spend years in this place and still not fully understand what makes it tick. If you’re lucky enough to be there for a while, please, take the time to venture out, learn a few Japanese phrases, see the country, immerse yourself in the culture with an open mind, and by all means… try some octopus balls.
.:Japan Travel Tips:.
Planning on doing some extensive traveling by train?
Get a Japan Rail Pass that allows you to use almost any of the JR system trains. You can purchase a pass for seven, 14 or 21 days for much less than the cost of buying individual tickets. Not planning to travel too far? Get a Pasmo or Suica, a pre-paid train pass that doubles as electronic money at many station stores.
Japanese hotels are notoriously expensive and small.
If you want to save money, book a room at one of the military hotels on a U.S. military installation. The New Sanno Hotel, available to U.S. military personnel and Department of Defense civilians, is a very affordable alternative and located in the middle of Tokyo (it even has a small Navy Exchange). This place fills up several months in advance on weekends.
New anti-smoking efforts in many major city train stations have made life harder on smokers.
If you do like to light up, make sure you do so in a designated smokers’ area, often discernable by the crowd of people enveloped in a grey haze in the corner of a train platform or glass hut. Many cities also prohibit walking and smoking after a rash of incidents involving people walking with lit cigarettes in hand at the eye level of little children.
Did You Know?
Japan is not a tipping society; no need to calculate the 15 percent.
If you can’t say it in Japanese, say it in English. You may be surprised.
Slurp your noodles, but don’t leave your chopsticks stuck upright in your bowl of rice. It reminds the Japanese of funeral offerings.
About the Taxi
Try not to take the taxi in the early morning and late night hours as the rates increase twofold. The taxi doors open and close automatically, so resist the urge to manhandle them yourself.
Military Resources |
Online Resources |
Sato Travel |
Metropolis Tokyo Magazine – |
Navy Lodge |
U.S. Embassy – Japan |
