Iris – Page 127 – goinggaijin.com

Tanabata

Yesterday was the seventh day of the seventh month, which is the day when the Tanabata festival takes place. The legend tells of two lovers, Orihime (represented by Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair), who have to live all year separated by the Milky Way, and are only allowed to meet for one single night – on the seventh day of the seventh month. A very touching story indeed… The date of course refers to the lunar calender, and in some places (Sendai for example), it is still celebrated then. It seems to be a very local festival, with varying types of celebrations, often even depending on the participating shrine. A fixed part of the festivities everywhere is to write a wish onto a piece of paper and tie it to one of the bamboo trees that are set up at shrines, and pray to the gods for the fulfillment of the wishes. Never short of things I want, I went to Shiramine shrine, because the ceremony there has an extra feature…

It was an especially nice ceremony indeed. It was performed by three Shinto priests of different ranks, with incantations in front of the shrine in the beginning. Then, at the raised platform in the center of the precincts, a quartet of musicians (one koto and three types of wind instruments I couldn’t quite make out) began to play a tune that can be described as … odd, at least to Western ears. They accompanied a group of four shrine maidens, elaborately dressed, with fans and headgear, who performed a dance in honour of the deity. I am quite sure every single movement had a specific meaning, but of course, it was completely lost on me.

After the dance, the ceremony continued and once again, a small number of (most certainly paying) participants could take part in the ritual offering of paper and green branches to the deity. Some more chanting concluded the ceremony.

The interesting bit here was a person with a microphone telling the spectators – and also the participants – what would happen next, when they had to stand, bow, and were allowed to sit again. It reminded me very much of the priests in our churches who, at weddings, funerals and the like, have to guide their hapless sheep in a quite similar manner…

Anyway, at the end of the ceremony, the fun feature began. Shiramine is the shrine where people go to pray for luck – in various ball games, especially soccer. Usually, a shrine receives offerings for the gods to grant a wish and when they have done so. And here, there are many footballs of all sizes offered, often with a note or signature written on them, and they are displayed. It gives the shrine an appearance very different from all the others with their large stacks of sake barrels!

So, the fun feature at Shiramine shrine every year at the Tanabata festival is the playing of the ball game called Kemari, where eight players, men and women, wonderfully dressed in old court costumes and black leather shoes, play kick up with a white ball made from deer skin, which had just been blessed in the preceding ceremony. It was very hot and humid yesterday, and the players’ clothing with its several layers and endless sleeves and hakama must have been incredibly hot indeed, but the obvious and genuine fun the players had in the game made it extra fun to watch too. When the game was over, some of the spectators were invited to try kick ups as well, which I thought was a very nice move.

I went home then, bought some sweet bread and a chocolate milk and took a break on a shadowy bench at the river. It was a wonderful day.

Daifuku

I love sweets. Always did. My favourite is chocolate of course, milk chocolate to be precise. My approach is more gourmand than gourmet, but being a woman I can at least point to scientific studies indicating I need it for both my health and my happiness…

Anyway, it seems that Asian people have a different approach to sweets. First of all, the idea of dessert is all but unknown. If any is offered, it is mostly assorted fruit, or you can pick up some candy when paying. Second, chocolate does not appear to be very popular here. Yes, there are a number of Japanese brands, but I haven’t seen anything beyond dark-milk-white unless imported. There are chocolate cookies, chocolate covered nuts and the like, but it appears that the Japanese are more fond of salty snacks. To be fair, eating chocolate in summer is a rather sticky experience, and I am not a big fan of eating it straight out of the fridge, although I will in times of great need. Nowadays there are many bakeries selling bread and cakes, but very often they are of a rather spongy quality which makes them all taste the same after a while.

Of course, there are traditional Japanese sweets, and many a festive occasion is celebrated by making special sweets that are to be eaten only then. For example, New Year’s Day requires eating a rather special type of sticky mochi.

Mochi are little balls of sticky rice dough, mixed with a tremendous amount of sugar and often coated in some as well. They are soft to the touch, have a somewhat chewy consistency and come essentially in three flavours: plain (white), cherry (pink), and green tea (green), where the latter is the most widely available, and I think tastes the best. From this mochi dough, other sweets are derived, and I have recently been given those daifuku, perfectly packed in a beautiful presentation box: They were maybe four centimetres in diameter and consisted of some mochi dough a few millimeters thick on the outside. They were filled with anko, red bean paste, which is very sweet – when enough sugar is added. To be honest, I don’t like the taste very much, but sometimes, when the paste is the smooth one, with the husks of the beans removed, I find it tolerable enough. The ones shown here were comparatively hard on the outside, very different from the unfilled mochi, but the reason could be that I ate them close to the expiration date and all the water that makes the mochi so soft may have been gone already. I had them for breakfast, and it always surprises me how long you are satisfied after only one or two of them.

If you have the opportunity to try daifuku, do so – but be warned of the red bean paste, it’s not to everybody’s liking…

Down

I had a terrible day yesterday and I’m still not feeling any better. I have no idea what triggered feeling down (it’s not homesickness, I’m sure), but that it rained all day yesterday surely didn’t help.

At least the weather has improved a bit today.

I need more chocolate.

Routine

I have been here now for almost two months. I have made new friends and had new experiences, and I still love the country and the people. I guess I’m really here to stay.

By now, however, my feeling of endless holidays has subsided a little, and I believe I need to get moving and start getting serious about this. First of all: I need new routines, which means I need to work on my Japanese. Seriously. Already last month I started to study Kanji every day, and I so far I am satisfied with the results. However, I’ll need to do more than to start reading, so my plan for now is to study new things (Kanji and grammar) in the morning and do revisions in the evenings, both for at least one hour, more is even better. I still want to go out and explore the city – especially as this month is the famous Gion matsuri (you’ll hear about that one, promised) – but I’m planning to do that in the afternoon if possible. This is a good time to go out, because if the weather is nice, my room is too hot to do anything in there, even sleeping. So, this seems like a good plan.

Also, I’ll need to start looking for a job more seriously. The first question that poses itself however, is: Which type of job? Something full-time, related to what I’ve been doing so far or teaching English? There are pro’s and con’s to both. A “normal” job in a company, possibly a Japanese one, is probably hard to find because it may require more knowledge of Japanese than I have at the moment. Also, many jobs in my field are located in Tokyo, and I’d rather not go there, the city is crazy. No matter where, it will be difficult or even impossible get a part time job, and a full time job here means full time and then some, so I am a bit worried that I may not have the time or energy to keep up studying the language properly. Of course, living and working in a Japanese environment should quickly increase at least my listening comprehension, and it’s also interesting to get some hands-on experience of Japanese work life.
Teaching English is the easy option in the sense that such a job may be comparatively easy to find, also in Kyoto. Depending on the school – remember that I consider only adult education – I may be able to only work as many hours as I need to get by, so I can have another part-time job studying Japanese so to speak, in order to find a more decent job later on. The big con is that I will mostly speak English during work and will be associating with other foreigners who may only be here for a limited amount of time. That’s not really a good way to build a network in a new country, I think.

So, yes, with respect to work I have not yet decided, although I tend towards a “decent” job right now, mostly because I’m not really a patient teacher, as my old students will testify. Anyway, time to get moving in some direction. It’s always possible to change course later.

Summer Purification

Yesterday was June 30th – the last day of the first half of the year. In Japan, this is the day of Nagoshi no Harae – an ancient Shinto purification rite. At the shrines where this ritual is performed, a very large wreath made of miscanthus reed and paper strips is set up at a gate or torii. The idea is that people walk through it and thus purify themselves of the sins of the first half year. Additionally, small paper dolls can be handed out, something is written on them (not sure what, either the name of the person or the defilement they want to get rid of) and then they are thrown into a pond or a river to wash away and with it the sins of the person. Some people pick out strands of the reed from the large wreath, make a smaller one from it and hang it over their entrance door in order to protect the house from misfortune.

Well, nothing better than to have a fresh start every now and then I thought and made my way to Heian shrine where the ceremony started at 4 pm. The wreath was set up at the entrance, and there were many people walking through it, essentially in an “eight” shaped pattern. It’s a pity I couldn’t read the instructions next to the wreath, so only when it was too late I found out I did only half of the pattern. If that took care of half of my sins only, it’s a start 😉

Anyway, there was a spot set apart with curtains for people to take part in the larger ceremony. They were given some small paper dolls to write upon and handed them back to the shrine maidens, together with an envelope containing money. Then they could enter the enclosure and waited patiently. At 4 pm sharp, a group of Shinto priests started from one of the buildings, left the shrine through a side exit and entered it again through the wreath. When they arrived at the fenced off area, the ceremony began with individual bowing – strictly by order of rank, of course – to a small altar, then the main priest began chanting. The other participants were invited to step forward to the altar, and they seemed to be throwing small pieces of paper over their shoulders (or possibly at the altar, I was too far away to know for sure). When all the participants were finished, the chanting stopped. The main priest stepped forward, also threw some paper over his shoulder, then tore up several large, long pieces of white paper in swift movements. After that, he swung a branch with green leaves over his head once for each cardinal direction. And that was the main public ceremony. After that, all the priests went to the main shrine building, followed by the other paying participants. I did not want to follow, so I cannot say what they did there, but it seemed that the further ceremony was private anyway. I do know however, that behind the main shrine building there is a garden with a large pond, so maybe the paper dolls were drowned there?

Once again, I found it an interesting experience, but unfortunately I could not understand exactly what was going on. It would be interesting to participate in such a ceremony, but I will have to wait for my Japanese to drastically improve, because I wouldn’t want to make a fool of myself. I don’t think being a foreigner would be much of an issue in that case, as I mentioned before the Japanese are quite inclusive when it comes to religion. Maybe in a few years…

Noh

As promised last Wednesday, I went to a Noh performance yesterday. It was a special performance by students of the International Noh Institute in Kyoto, and there were many international performers (including women) which makes this a special event indeed, as most Noh actors you see here are Japanese. This has to do with the fact that Noh schools (like many other traditional arts) have been run by the same family for centuries and the children are groomed from a very young age to take over the school.

a traditional noh stage — traditional Noh stage

Anyway, there were a large number of different plays, three full Noh plays, and several smaller excerpts, scheduled from 11 – 17 o’clock. I already knew there was no way I could stay even remotely focused for all of six hours, so I decided beforehand to only go to the first two, the first one with a variety of dances and songs from different plays, the second one the full play Kiyotsune.

Of course, before going I did some research and read about Noh. I know now that the art originated in the 14th century, and that it remains essentially unchanged until today. I found out that any professional actor starts training as a child and must know all the parts – from chorus to lead actor – and must be able to sing them. And that the ensemble for a particular play will only rehearse together a single time before the performance. So, I went there with certain expectations. Not that I could tell you exactly what they were of course, but I certainly did not expect what I got to see. Okay, where do I start?

There were several groups of people on stage: the musicians (up to three different drums and a flute), the singers of the chorus and the actors. The musicians play the music, but not all the time, and sometimes during playing they shout as well, which I found distracting, because the were even louder than the actors at times. The chorus more or less explains the background and tells the story itself, and its members probably have the largest part to memorize. Both groups are dressed in standard, dark Japanese attire.

The actors themselves – most elaborately dressed with bright costumes and, in case of the main actors, wearing masks and wigs – engage in dialogue with each other and dance as required. They may also act out certain parts of the story, fighting for example. And this acting struck me as most peculiar. I expected it to be very formalised and stylised to begin with, but in fact, over long stretches of the play there was hardly any movement. Restrained would be a good word here, even sparse. For example, the wife of the dead warrior was supposed to cry over the death message; this was only indicated by her raising her hand towards her masked face.

It was interesting that actors who did not appear in a certain scene did not leave the stage. Instead, they took a sitting position somewhere (doubtlessly precisely indicated by tradition) and faded into the background, motionless. Otherwise, props that were not needed anymore were immediately removed by a stagehand and put outside. This means that in the end, when everybody has left, the stage is completely clear again. Also, the musicians and the chorus barely moved, except for the taking up and putting down of their instruments and fans, respectively. And all through the performance, the chorus had to kneel on the hard wooden floor – quite a feat in itself, I know how much that can hurt!

Altogether I found it a very interesting experience. I was glad for the summary of scenes and explanations I picked up before the play, as there is no way of understanding it – old Japanese, remember – and the tiny clues indicating feelings or movements otherwise. For the next time I’ll have to do even more research. I don’t think this is an experience I need to repeat anytime soon, but the next time somebody suggests going, I’ll surely say yes!

Finally, to give you an idea of what I’ve been talking about, here is a very brief summary of the play Kiyotsune together with some pictures:

Taira no Kiyotsune is dead. He drowned himself at the imminent destruction of his clan. His retainer, Awazu no Saburo, travels to the capital to inform Kiyotsune’s wife of his death

He hands her a keepsake of her late husband, a lock of his hair.

After he has done so, Kiyotsune’s ghost appears.

His wife is happy to see him, but soon laments his death, and the fact that she is now left alone. They begin to argue.

Kiyotsune recalls the last days of his life and explains why he had to kill himself. Kiyotsune battles again in the afterlife before he can finally enter paradise.

Greenery

It was a very strange day today. The weather was okay, overcast throughout the day but clear, neither wind nor rain. But, in the early afternoon, there were a few times when the town was completely still. I could hear no wind in the trees, no birds or other animals, no human voices. Neither did I hear any cars, even the ambulances that usually come and go to the hospital nearby with their noisy sirens seemed to have taken a break. Later on I realized that there was no sound coming from the sports fields of the schools or the university either. It was an eerie feeling, the proverbial calm before the storm.

Nothing happened so far, and I’m still wondering what could have caused that stillness around. It was no Japanese holiday or end-of-school day or so, and I am not aware of any commemoration to take place today with a certain time of silence (and that wouldn’t happen more than once during the afternoon anyway). The only logical conclusion is that the wind was coming down from the mountain behind the house and countered the noise that is usually coming up the hill. But then again, I didn’t hear any wind either.

Anyway, I wanted to write about the obvious love of the Japanese for greenery. I’m not talking about those beautifully arranged Japanese gardens that look so deceivingly natural without really being it, not this time. I’m talking about those tiny little spots of greenery in front of practically all the houses in my neighborhood, and in fact, throughout Kyoto. Of course, not every place can have a lovely garden like Ebisu’s:

But nevertheless, it seems that no entrance is to small or too cramped with other stuff not to warrant a little bit of green somewhere. The smallest I have seen are a couple of flower pots, sometimes hung up at the wall next to the door.

I haven’t seen any bonsai trees displayed like that though, but I now understand why you would want to have one. They are readily available at markets now, and even quite affordable. Unfortunately I have grey thumbs rather than green ones, so I’d probably kill them off inadvertently sooner or later. Better not to get one, but they are so lovely.

I like the feeling those plants convey. It’s very friendly and homely and not as sterile as some parts of European cities can be sometimes.

Lazy

Today it was raining most of the day, it seems that the rainy season has finally arrived. It came a bit later than usual, so far it has been fairly dry. Let’s hope it’s not getting too wet – I don’t enjoy going out when it rains…

Hence, I spent a very nice and very lazy day at home today. I revised my Japanese grammar and practiced Kanji. In between I was treated to the vocal exercises of the latest addition to the guest house: A young German who is practicing for his Noh-Dance performance the coming weekend. Noh is a traditional, highly stylised Japanese art form which developed in the 14th century and is still practised almost unchanged today. This includes the performances being done in Old Japanese, which many modern Japanese cannot speak anymore, so apparently many of the audience read along with the libretto – without actually looking at the stage. I will go and see some of the performances this weekend – it seems like something one has to do at least once. I shall report after the fact.

Oh, in a short pause of the downpour, I did go out for my groceries. And, this time I was able to locate unsalted butter in my local supermarket – and some (almost French) baguette too! So, to sweeten the terrible weather, I finally ate (too much) of my Nutella on an authentically tasting baguette with unsalted butter – the perfect treat for a lazy day!

Ambiguity

The other day I was chatting with a friend in the Kyoto International Community House, when its manager came by and joined us. My friend is a Muslim, and the manager is interested in Arab culture, so they can always find a topic to talk about. At some point, the conversation shifted to religious differences and the Yugoslavian war, and all of a sudden the manager asked: “Why is there so much division because of something so simple as religion?”

We looked at him, he was completely serious. Don’t get me wrong, this man is very intelligent and highly educated, speaks several languages and likes to travel abroad. He was indeed serious when he said “I don’t understand.” In fact, he asked a truly Japanese question.

In Japan, religion is a non-topic. There is no state religion and people enjoy complete religious freedom, up to the point where not even the state asks anybody what religion they follow. The traditional religion is Shintoism with lots of local deities and tiny shrines. The main goddess is Amaterasu, the sun goddess who is still worshipped in Ise shrine to this day, and the emperor has been considered a god himself until the Americans took this status away with the new constitution after WW II. In the Heian period, after 800 CE, Buddhism was at its height. It was first introduced from China to the imperial court, and while the emperor was considered a Shinto deity, it was not seen as a problem for him or his court to practise Buddhism as well. Today, Christian traditions and festivals become more and more popular, for example celebrating Christmas, despite only about 1% of the Japanese considering themselves Christian. In the life of an average Japanese, a newborn baby is presented to the local Shinto shrine (and later on at several other occasions), a wedding is often conducted using Christian rites (although not always overseen by a real priest) and the vast majority of funerals are Buddhist. New Year’s is celebrated by visiting the local Shinto shrine and the second largest holiday in the country, the festival for the dead, O-bon, is celebrated with Buddhist rites. In short, you can be everything and do everything at the same time, and that although about 50% of Japanese say they are not religious, and only about 25% declare themselves Buddhist. Hence, a certain religious ambiguity is introduced, and the Western idea that we must choose sides and strictly obey the division, sounds strange to Japanese.

This sort of ambiguity is also present in the language. Most of the time, a subject is not used, for example “Eki ni ikkimas – Station to go” is a perfectly correct sentence in Japanese, although it does not mention who is going. From this simple sentence, we cannot even find out if the speaker talks about himself, somebody else, or even a whole group of people. This we can only find out from the rest of the story. Of course, there are also Western languages where a subject is not needed, Spanish for example. But in “Es Austriaca – is Austrian” the verb gives away that we are talking about a single third person and the noun ending -a tells us immediately that a woman is meant, so there is much less left for guessing.

Another form of language ambiguity is that Japanese don’t like to say an open “No, I will not.” Instead, you hear “It’s too difficult, not possible…” which will provoke the Westerner to look for a solution rather than to politely bow out of the situation, and hence, this will considerably prolong negotiations. However, I’m getting sidetracked.

Of course, Japanese people, stuck inside their culture, do not understand when they are called ambivalent by Western people stuck in their ways. I don’t think many of them even understand what we mean by that. I don’t think the manager was very pleased with our ultimate answer that we must choose sides, must make decisions, and can’t be sitting on the fence forever. A typical cultural misunderstanding, partly lost in translation …

Devotion of Suspect X

The Devotion of Suspect X
Keigo Higashino

Ishigami lives next door of Yasuko, with whom he is secretly in love – not that she will ever find that out, of course. However, when Yasuko’s abusive ex-husband Togashi shows up at her apartment and in an unexpected outburst of violence is killed by her, Ishigami senses his chance and offers his help.

A body found at the old Edogawa river is quickly identified as Shinji Togashi. Naturally, his ex-wife is questioned, but her alibi is sound. Somehow, detective Kusanagi of Tokyo Police is not satisfied, however, and he turns – yet again – to his friend Prof. Yukawa for assistance.

In a strange coincidence, it turns out that Yukawa and Ishigami were classmates at University; the former a gifted experimental physicist, the latter a genius mathematician. Soon, solving the murder case changes into a battle of minds and wits, and there can only be one to answer the question: “Which is harder: devising an unsolvable problem, or solving that problem?”

This is perfect light reading for summer time. While Yasuko has commited murder, it was done in self defence, and one cannot help pitying her throughout, especially when Ishigami starts weaving his web. Ishigami, the shrewd teacher of mathematics, is in fact the main and most interesting character, who devises a cunning plan to help Yasuko and from then on pulls the strings from the back. I could not even guess at the solution of the mystery, and when it comes on the last few pages it arrives as a shocking surprise.

Check the book out on amazon – have fun!