Christmas in Japan

With only less than 1 percent of Japan's population being Christian, Christmas here lacks all spiritual meaning. Instead it is a very commercial holiday, more like Valentine's Day in the United States. Gifts are many times romantic in nature. Some shops are decorated in hearts and talk about "Christmas Love". And for some strange reason there are Christmas costumes, such as reindeer, Santa girls, and snowmen, for adults (yes I said ADULTS) everywhere. I am not quite sure I want that fascination explained to me. Shops, restaurants, businesses are open on Christmas Day. It is almost like any other day. It is a cute holiday with very little tradition.

When talking with my hairdresser a few weeks ago, he did tell me Santa comes for younger children. But there is no milk and cookies the night before. In fact, he thought the idea of leaving Santa cookies was rather odd. There is no jolly Santa sitting in shopping areas waiting for kids to come tell their wish list. No stockings hung by the chimney with care. No cute songs about Dasher, Dancer and Rodolph. 

There is some tradition for what a family may do on Christmas Eve. A KFC Christmas Chicken Dinner is quite popular. Some Japanese will make reservations for their "Christmas Chicken" ahead of time and then line up outside their local store to pick up their orders. Thanks to KFCs brilliant marketing effort, the Japanese believe Westerners celebrate Christmas with a chicken dinner instead of ham, turkey or beef.  Christmas Eve is celebrated by eating a "Christmas Cake".  Stores everywhere have elaborately decorated, small, homemade cakes (which cost about $45 USD and up), which people can preorder and pick up just before or on Christmas Eve.

Here are a few examples of what the cakes look like. And if you look closely, there is not a single fruitcake on the list.

I will take a pass on the KFC dinner, but I wonder how much convincing it would take to get Matt on board with the Christmas cake. A way to a man's heart is through his stomach right?

Shichi-go-san Festival

Shichi-go-san is a festival celebrated on November 15 to mark the growth of a child as they turn three, five and seven  years old. In Japan, these ages are considered critical in a child’s life. Particularly, at the age of seven, a young girl celebrates wearing her first obi, while at the age of five a young boy celebrates wearing his first hakama pants in public. The age of three marks the first time where both boys and girls are allowed to let their hair grow. 


Typically Westerners are not allowed to participate in Japanese ceremonies. However in Kobe, a special ceremony has been arranged just for the "gainjin" children when they turn three, five and seven.  Sami was so excited to be able to participate this year as she turned seven in June. 


The boys wear haori jackets and hakama trousers, while the girls wear a special ceremonial kimono. We had to be at the temple at 8:30 am for Sami is be dressed by one of the Japanese helpers. It took about 20-25 minutes for them to get her dressed in the kimono.

 All Sami could say when she was done being dressed was that she couldn't breathe or sit. 

We had almost 90 minutes before the ceremony so we walked around the temple grounds taking pictures. 

 The funniest part of the day was watching all the Japanese people take pictures of us. I felt like we were famous and they were the paparazzi. Sami was even interviewed for two TV channels. Imagine how that went considering the language barrier. 

The ceremony began at 10 am. The kids filed into the temple after drums sounded. We really didn't understand what was going on, but it was pretty interesting to watch. 

You can see many more pictures here.

Higashinda Danjiri Festival

The Higashinda Danjiri Matsuri (festival) is held every year in our neighborhood during Golden Week.  This festival takes place over two days at a nearby shrine and throughout the streets.

Each of the different neighborhoods within the Higashinda area have their own guild, which is in charge of their area's danjiri (cart). This festival consists of over 15 different danjiri's, each elaborately decorated by their own members. A taiko (drum) and kane (bell) are placed inside and musicians are chosen to sit and play them. Other men (yes, only men can be on the cart itself) are selected to ride atop and to pull the cart throughout the streets. All of the people will shout and yell a chant, similar to "heave ho!" as they move the danjiri.

Matt, Sami and I went to the shrine to watch the "kickoff" of the festival.

The danjiris were all lined up and then paraded into the shrine grounds one by one, each doing their own presentation.

Here is a little video clip from the shrine ceremony.



After each of the groups have gone, while the people pulling and riding on them take a bit of a break, you can walk around and take a peek of the danjiris.  We were lucky and one of the people let Sami sit up on the danjiri. It was very exciting for her, as many Japanese people also stopped to take pictures of the gaijin on the danjiri.

After this little ceremony the danjiris are pulled up and down the mountainside throughout the different neighborhoods. They came past our house both during the day and at night. Watching them pull these carts up the hills is amazing.

Some of the people even posed for me while pulling the danjiri.

Honestly, we have no clue what the are doing and why they are doing what they do, but it is pretty cool to watch.