Japanese Schools

        Today I will talk about Japanese schools.
       First, the rules. Very rarely will a Japanese school not have uniforms and if they have uniforms there are usually two styles. One for summer and one for winter. The school will a set day for when the students are supposed to switch the uniforms. If a student forgets, the uniform is in the wash, or the uniform has a rip in it, then they have a couple days to get it fixed. However, if they still continue to wear the winter uniform when it’s summer or vice versa, then they can get in trouble. Piercings, tattoos, or purposefully not following the dress code will immediately get a student expelled. Relationships, like boyfriends and girlfriends, are extremely frowned upon. Their thinking is that school is a place to learn; not a social hang out.  Even if a girl and boy have that kind of relationship you might never know since they won’t hold hand and certainly won’t make out in the halls like at my school. Sometimes a couple won’t hold hands even in public.
        A Japanese student might not have a list of chores like in America. The thinking is that students have a job, which is to learn, so the parents might not make them do chores but instead study. There is great pressure on students to get into a good high school and then a good college. Many will go to what’s called a cram school, which is like school at night. So, basically, those kids go to school and then more school. Cram schools usually are ahead of regular schools in material and it’s usually harder material. Sometimes a cram school student will fall asleep in their regular class and the teacher won’t mind because they know that the student is ahead of everyone else. Other times though the teacher will punish all students who fall asleep.
        Transportation to school is also something very different from American schools. Some students will ride the train for several hours or more just to get to school. Others will take several modes of transportation like the subway then the train, maybe ride a bike or walk half an hour to school. Not many parents will drive their child to school since gas (a valuable resource on a island) is expensive.
Many in America will say that their school lunches aren’t the best. Well, you don’t need to worry about that in Japanese schools since they don’t have cafeterias. A student will make their own lunch or their mother will however they call it a bento.  Students are allowed to eat their bento almost anywhere they want. They’re even allowed to leave the school grounds to go to the nearest convenience store and get a store bought bento.
        In America, the students move from class to class with all sorts of people in their grade but in Japan it’s the teacher who moves. The teacher will have their desk with all their papers in a teacher lounge. Most of the time there are papers everywhere like in the picture below.  The students will have one classroom and a homeroom teacher that they go to with the same people for the whole year. They also have assigned desks that they sit in for the whole trimester. You can imagine that they get pretty excited when it’s time to change desks or classes after seeing the same people day in and day out.
       That’s all for today.

(582 words)

Resources:
http://web-japan.org/trends/09_fashion/fas100729.html

A Japanese Bath

        Today I’m going to talk about Japanese bathrooms. Oh man, really crazy stuff. The setup of a bathroom is in the picture below.
        The first big difference is the showers. I will tell you how to take a Japanese shower (for the picture below any way). First, sit down on a tub. Use fill up a bucket and get yourself wet. To get the water going you'd push a button or turn a nozzle then turn it off. Shampoo your hair, use conditioner, scrub your body or whatever clean yourself (I'm not going to spell out how to take a shower ok). Fill the bucket again and repeat. Once your clean you can then step into the tub and soak in the hot water like it's a hot tub. It's very important to wash yourself outside of the tub before getting into it. Others will use the tub as well so you don’t drain the water and waste it. Since a person already washed themselves outside the tub, Japanese don’t have any qualms about reusing the tub. Most Japanese also take showers or baths at night instead of in the mornings like most Americans. They sometimes have a hierarchy to who gets to use the bath first. Depending on the family, the father or guest will go first and enjoy the warm bath water. The mother will go next, then the eldest child on down.
        Now for toilets. Most Japanese homes have a separate, kind of closet like space for the toilet. It’s separate from the bathroom and only consists of a toilet sometimes a sink. Usually the sinks in the bathroom. Some toilets have all sorts of gadgets on the toilet like a seat warmer. Let us say you get up in winter in the middle of the night and you have to go. Well, no worries about a cold toilet seat. They might also have a device on the wall with options of a bigger or smaller flush depending on ...well you know. Another option is the spray, where the toilet will wash your bottom. Water temperature control for the spray button is another one on the toilet control panel. There are probably others but I think that’s all I can take of freaky things you can do with a Japanese toilet.

(385 words)

Contemporary Japanese Bathroom

Japanese Toilet

There's No Place Like Home

           Alright, this time my post is something new (for once). Japanese homes.
          Well for starters, Japanese house prices depend on location, location, (you guessed it) location. Since Japan is a small country, the land prices are generally higher than American homes. Houses are also generally more compact than American homes.
          I think the strangest difference between American and Japanese homes is that Japanese houses don't generally have dryers. More people are getting one for their house but most still don’t have one. People will just hang their laundry on a line to dry out. On rainy days, people will hang clothes inside or wait until the sun comes out. A house might actually be more attractive to a Japanese buyer if it faces the sun. Why don't they generally not have dryers? Well, it takes energy to dry cloths. Japan is an island so if they don't need to use energy they try not to. Otherwise they'll use up their resources and have to eventually pay other countries for it.
         Many people like cleanliness in their homes but the Japanese take it a little smidgen further. No shoes in the house. Ever. That’s right, nearly all homes have what's called a genkan. The entry way is, usually, built lower than the house so you can take off your shoes and step up into the house. Sometimes it's just a different tiled spot but that's where the shoes stop. The Japanese have genkans to not only keep the dust and dirt out but they also used to believe it would keep bad spirits out as well. So, for example, lets say your moving. Yeah, the movers will take off their shoes and put them on again every time they go in or out. Every time. Genkans aren’t just in homes but nearly all buildings. The company will have little slippers you can wear so you don't walk around in your socks and cubbies to put your shoes in.
         Ok next is Japanese beds. Japanese will use either a traditional Western bed or what’s called a futon. This is different from what you might think as the futon that can be a couch and a bed. Japanese futons usually have a foam pad (matto), a futon (shikibuton), sheets(shiitsu), blankets (mofu), a duvet (kakebuton) and a pillow (makura) (pictures below). It is very important to air out a futon so mold and other thing can’t grow inside of it. The Japanese fold a futon into thirds with only the bottom of the futon touching the floor; again that’s for cleanliness. By folding the futon and putting it in a cupboard a room can be a bedroom and an office.

(446 words)

Japanese Home

Folded Up Futons

Laid Out Futon

Resources:
http://www.wikihow.com/Maintain-a-Japanese-Futon

Japanese Chess But Not Really Chess

            Do any of you like chess? I don’t. To play, I need brain power that I don’t have *sigh*.  However, if you do like chess you might be interested in Shogi. That’s pronounced sho- and ‘gi’ like ‘geese’. In the Yamagata prefecture of Japan, you will find Tendo City or the “Town of Shogi Pieces”.  Yes, the “town” because it used to be a town but now it’s a city.
             This city is famous for creating the most beautiful Shogi pieces since the Edo period. Oda Nobumichi lived in Yamagata and encouraged samurai to build Shogi pieces so the town could be financially “brought back from the dead.” Oda Nobumichi was a descendent of Oda Nobunaga who (almost) conquered all of Japan. Nobunaga loved to play Shogi and thought of it as a way to become better at planning strategy (a good trait in the samurai arsenal) for battle. Nobumichi used Nobunaga’s fame and told samurai to make Shogi pieces (normally a lowly job) calling it an honor. Around the year of 1912, the making of Shogi pieces became industrialized with machines cutting the wood and stamp printing of the kanji (that’s the confusing squiggles) onto the pieces.
           Tendo City has courses on making Shogi pieces and many other Shogi related events in hopes of spreading the game’s popularity. One such event is the annual Ningen Shogi match. Ningen Shogi is played with human pieces and a life-sized board. The people are dressed in real looking samurai armor and get chairs to sit since a game usually takes up to an hour.
           A few differences between Shogi and chess are listed as follows. A player can “drop” or put an enemies captured piece back into the game, all pieces can be promoted so that they can move differently, and pieces in Shogi move differently than in chess. For example, a “pawn” in chess can move forward or diagonally but in Shogi it can only move forward. There are also several pieces in Shogi that aren’t in Western chess. In Shogi there is no queen but a silver and gold general. For more information on how to play you can see the link below. :)

(363 words)

Ningen Shogi

Oda Nobunaga

Shogi, shogi, and more shogi

Sources:

http://www.mustlovejapan.com/subject/tendo/

Tendo City Shogi Info

http://www.komatsu1.net/cate11-14.html

Tendo City Shogi History

http://ancientchess.com/page/play-shogi.htm

How to play Shogi
http://www.ikechang.com/chess/2001/rep0105e.htm
Description of 2001Ningen Shogi

Castles and Samurai

           In the prefecture of Akita on the east coast of northern Japan, you can find the castle town of Kakunodate. Kakunodate is surrounded by mountains on three sides and a river runs through it. This was not where the original Kakunodate was but Ashina Yoshikatsu moved it in case of an attack. In that case the town would be protected by the mountains. Once the largest castle in the Akita region it is no longer there but the town still remains. Along the Hinokinai-gawa River for two kilometers there are weeping cherry blossoms. It is called a “scenic beauty” by the Japanese government. One million people annually visit this beautiful spot in late April and early May when the blossoms are at their fullest. During the Edo Period (1603-1868) several samurai families competed to grow the most beautiful cherry blossoms. Along

 Kakunodate is split into two main sections with the samurai houses in the northern part of town and in past times commoners lived in the southern part. According to the website called Jcastle, “The castle town was viewed as an extension of the castle's defenses. The roads surrounding it are a maze of dead ends, T-junctions, and narrow winding streets. Some castle towns, in addition to the aforementioned maze of confusing streets, had one large avenue that led directly to the main gate of the castle. Any attacking force who dared to tempt this lane would find itself in the most heavily fortified part of the city. The Otemon (main gate) is the strongest of all the gates and the lane was lined with homes of loyal retainers.”  You might be thinking why would a lord put their most loyal samurai’s houses in such a dangerous position?  Well, if a lord has his most loyal in front, then he knows that they might die but he will live instead of the other way around. This may seem harsh but back then it was more important to have loyalty and honor than to be alive. I know this is late but for those who don't know, a samurai is like the knight in Europe. A samurai will battle with a sword and if his lord tells him to commit senpaku (suicide) he WILL do it.

 How close a samurai’s house was to the castle reflected his standing with his lord. If his lord was furious with him, the lord could have the samurai move his home farther from the castle. If an enemy attacked the samurai’s house could be destroyed with his family first. The fear for their family ensures that the samurai will do his best to please his lord. The size of the house reflected a samurai’s rank and only samurai could have walls or gates. Today, most samurai houses are still in the hands of their descendants but some are open to the public to view from the outside.

(442 words)

Cherry Blossom's in the samurai district

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Samurai house

Inside a samurai house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:



http://web-japan.org/atlas/communities/com01.html

Kakunodate History

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/akita/kakunodate.html

Kakunodate Overview

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3602.html

Kakunodate

http://www.jcastle.info/castle/profile/15-Kakunodate-Castle

Kakunodate Castle

http://www.jcastle.info/resources/view/10-Castle-Towns

Castle Towns and Samurai Houses



 

The City of Gold

Today’s post will be focused on the brighter side of Iwate prefecture. In the Iwate prefecture, there is the town of Hiraizumi. It was built by the once powerful Fujiwara clan. This clan had strong family ties to the emperors of Japan and exploited that relationship. By intermarrying, the Fujiwara clan held strong political power and set up the Northern family base in the town of Hiraizumi. Nearly 3,000 artifacts of the Fujiwara clan can be found there today. Hiraizumi was not only a major political town but a large economic town as well. As the main trader in gold, the Fujiwara clan had no worries about their financial situation. However in 1189, Minamoto Yoritomo, who later became the first shogun which is like an emperor, destroyed Hiraizumi looking for Yoshitsune. Yoshitsune was his brother and rival. He was being sheltered by the Fujiwara clan who paid for it dearly.

Fujiwara no Kiyohira, the founder of the Oshu Fujiwara clan, set up Chusonji Temple of Buddhism in the year 850. In this temple, you can find Konijikido, Kyozo Hall, the Treasure Hall, and a noh stage. Only Konijikido and the Kyozo Hall have survived to today while the others were rebuilt. The original Chusonji had pagodas, halls, gate, bell tower, repository, over 40 temples and shrines, and 300 cells for priests.

Konijikido is a hall featuring objects, wall hangings, and decorations made of entirely of gold. “The Golden Hall is also a grave of the three successive heads of the Fujiwara family. On the altars under which three coffins are stored stand rows of golden Buddhist statues and accouterments, and those altars, the ceilings, and pillars are gorgeously decorated with gold, silver and jewels.”

In Kyozo Hall Buddha scripture, or sermons, are stored. Not as impressive as Konijikido but certainly has the same amount in majesty. Hondo is the main hall where rituals and rites are performed and you can probably guess what’s in the Treasure Hall.

Near Chusonji Temple is Mt. Kinkeisan or “gold chicken mountain”. There is a legend that two gold chicken statues were buried at the top to protect Hiraizumi. This may seem silly but Japanese ancestry is from China. There, the chicken represents the break of day that drives away the night. In many folktales, the hero is saved by the sunrise and nocturnal monsters driven back by a rooster’s cry.  Other legends of Mt. Kinkeisan include how it was built and lost treasure. It is said that Hidehira, the third lord of Hiraizumi, built it in one night and that 10,000 lacquered bowls filled with gold are buried on it somewhere.

(439 words)

Mt. Kinkeisan

Konijikido

Chusonji Temple Entrance

 

Sources:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5001.html

Chusonji Temple

http://web-japan.org/atlas/architecture/arc03.html

Chusonji Gold Hall

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5000.html

Hiraiszumi

http://www.pref.iwate.jp/~hp0907/english/rekishi/index.html

Hiraizumi History

http://www.infomapjapan.com/hstore/201001-spfeature2.phtml

Iwate Overview

http://www.japan-iwate.info/app/location_detail.php?lid=4

Mt. Kinkeisan

http://psychobabel.net/mosaic/node.php?hp=fowl

Chicken Symbolism

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fear Mountain

This post will look at the more spiritual side of Aomori Prefecture.
In Aomori Prefecture, you can find one of the three most sacred places in Japan. Osore-zan is also know as Fear Mountain and for good reason. This mountain has a Buddhist temple (Bodaiji) with landscape surrounding it reflecting what Buddhist’s describe as the afterlife. There are eight mountains symbolizing the lotus flower as well as 108 vents that release sulfuric steam or mud  representing the 108 worldly desires and evils. With lots of volcanic activity, there is a constant smell of sulfur in the air. The nearby Lake Usori is many different shades of blue due to the different levels of sulfur in it.  Signs warn visitors of the poisonous pit vipers, crows flock, only one fish (big-scaled redfin) is able to survive in Lake Usori, and the chatter of bugs is nowhere to be heard. Despite the cold landscape, it can be a place of hope to the family and friends of the departed.
During the Bodaiji Festival, people who want to communicate to the dead can talk through spiritual mediums called itako. Itako are usually visually impaired and have rosaries with old coins, teeth, bones, and animal claws on it. Even if maybe the messages are similar, the customers don’t care lining up for hours and coming out visibly affected by the purification ritual.
The river, Sanzu no Kawa, is the Buddhist version of the River Styx. A river that all the dead must cross. Babies and unborn children have piles of pebbles on the riverbed trying to get to paradise. Offerings of pebbles is everywhere as parents hope the spirit named Jizo uses them to help their children get to paradise and drive away the demons. Depending on the country and place Jizo can be seen as male and female however most Jizo in Japan are male. Statues of Jizo is everywhere with a red bib and cap seen with sandals put in front of him to protect his feet from the sharp riverbed of Sanzu no Kawa. Toys, money, food, candy, and brightly colored flowers stand out from the gray ground. These things  represent the small pleasures in life that the children can no longer experience. Where Jizo is kind and is the yin principle, Fudo is fierce and the yang principle. Seen with fangs and a terrifying face, Fudo demands the best and is a purifier.

It’s founder was En’nin about 1200 years ago was studying in China when he had a dream. In it a holy monk told him to go back to Japan. Once he was there he had a “thirty days walk from Kyoto” to find a sacred mountain where he would carve a Jizo and teach Buddhism. After many hardships he found the mountainous area of Shimokita peninsula which had all the requirements from the dream. It has been there ever since.
 (484 words) 

Bodaiji Temple

Sanzu no Kawa

 

Jizo and offerings

 

Paradise Beach

Sources:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3727.html

Osorenzan overview

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fv20061222a1.html

Osorenzan spiritual

 http://www.japanguides.net/aomori/points-of-interest-around-shimokita-peninsula-of-mutsu-city.html

Guide to Osorenzan

http://odewire.com/134421/mysteries-and-secrets-osore-zan.html

Jizo and Fudo