Illumination

Here in Japan, around Christmas time Illuminations are very important. Our university had an illumination, I saw them all of the time on TV and my host-parents took us and my boyfriend out to one at a local park. It was super super cold, but the lights were really cool. Here are some of the pictures:



Thankfully it was a clear night and you could see the moon and stars really well. Unfortunately I was using my old camera at the time and it ran out of batteries pretty early on in the trip.

Seijin Shiki

Well, yesterday, the 14th, was a national holiday called Seijin shiki. Every year on this day people who turned 20 in the previous year after March (and those who turn 20 before April this year) gather to celebrate their coming of age. Usually women wear kimono and men wear a western suit. Apparently the cities hold assemblies in their town halls and have all sorts of guest speakers come and give speeches on growing up.

But since I wouldn't have understood most of what they were saying, my host-parents dressed Haru-chan and I in kimono and we took pictures. Here are some of the pictures:



My host-mom told us that this was a really easy way to wear the kimono. We didn't have any bottom layers underneath the silk. What happened was my host-mom gave us each a slip to put on and then she would come back into the room and she would dress us. The first thing she did was to fold a thick towel in two and wrap it around my waist because you're supposed to look, well, flat when you wear the kimono. So she put the towel on and then she put the cheating collar (instead of an under-robe) and tied some strings together and then started putting all sorts of belts around my waist.

Next I slipped the kimono on. My host-mom gathered the kimono around my waist until the hemline was around my ankles and then she tied a belt around the kimono so that the extra fabric hung around my waist. Then she made the extra fabric neat and tied another belt around it. Next came the obi, the big belt around the middle. She took some sort of pillow looking thing and put part of the obi through the hole in the bottom of it and stuck it, sort of like a chair back, against my back and tied it there. Then she started wrapping the obi around me, which was quite entertaining. She braced her foot against the outside of mine and yanked hard. It was so funny, I almost fell over every time! Then she did some complicated stuff with the obi and that was that. It was sort of like wearing a corset. But it was definantly a fun experience. Taking it off was much easier even though I had to have her help me with the obi.

But real silk kimonos are so expensive, though! The one I was wearing was around USD $6,000. And the obi alone was worth USD $2,000. The obi that Haru-chan was wearing was USD $5,000! If only I had that kind of money to spend on kimono....

Matsuri (Festival)

Well, one day last year my host-family took Haru-chan and I to a lights festival nearby. It was sort of interesting. They had a really long part of a street blocked off and they had really huge floats with lights on them with dancers and taiko drum floats inbetween them. It was really crowded and we kept losing each other, which was kind of bad. Luckily I had gotten my cell phone just that afternoon, so if we had gotten lost they could have e-mailed or called me.



What do you think?

Okane (Money)

So money is pretty different here in Japan. I mean, obviously they don't use the U.S. dollar here, but in other ways. For instance, most stores and restaurants only take cash, which is kind of inconvenient. Thankfully the crime rate is pretty low where I am. Apparently the only thing we really have to worry about in this area is grade schoolers shoplifting. Some stores do accept credit cards, but you have to really search for them. Major department stores and most grocery stores do accept them, but not all. Not to mention the Japanese don't have checks or checking accounts.

However it is pretty cool that you can pay your insurance bills at any convenience store.

So here are the coins and bills that I use everyday now:

Here is the front and back (respectively) of the 1 yen coin. Today it's roughly worth 0.009 U.S. dollars, in other words, less than a penny.




And here is the front and back of the 5 yen coin. Both the 1 and 5 yen coins cannot be used at most vending machines, which is really quite annoying because they start to pile up after awhile.



Here is the front and back of the 10 yen coin. This is the smallest coin that most vending machines accept.



And the front and back of the 50 yen coin.



And the front and back of the 100 yen coin, which is worth a little bit less than 1 U.S. dollar.



And the front and back of the 500 yen coin. This is sooo convenient!



And we'll start with the bills. This is the front and back of the 1,000 yen bill, the smallest bill that they have.



Here is the front and back of the 2,000 yen bill. This bill is actually really rare and they're not in print anymore. I don't think you can use these at vending machines....



And here is the front and back of the modern 5,000 yen bill.



And this is the front and back of an older 5,000 yen bill, another rare bill that's not in print anymore, I believe.



And this is the front and back of the 10,000 yen bill.



Sort of interesting, isn't it? Luckily the Japanese use Roman numerals, even though the number kanji aren't too difficult.