goinggaijin.com – Page 121 – A European's move towards Japan

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Today – January 6th is not a holiday here like in Austria – was the first working day in Japan again after the week long New Year’s holidays. It’s time for everybody to get back into the rut – and so it is for me. I have decided to start looking for a job even more aggressively than I did up to now, and I will go and print out a number of my CV’s to personally hand in at companies in town. There is one application I sent off in mid December, but according to their guidelines this is probably the last week I can except an answer from them, so I can just as well get started rightaway.

Wish me luck!

PS: Oh, by the way… Yesterday I went to Heian shrine, and in the spirit of both the country and the season, I was thinking of buying a good luck charm. I wanted something useful and asked if they had anything to do with finding a job or job related to begin with. The salesman pointed at the most expensive charm (of course), which bore the English description: Against general evil. Do you think that’s a sign?

Japanese New Year Traditions

In Japan, the New Year is the most important holiday. It is celebrated with efforts the West reserves for Christmas. There are lots of routines, rituals, and traditions surrounding New Year’s in Japan, so I will focus on the two things I did myself this time.

Joya-no-Kane
Like in Austria, where the large bell of the Stephansdom in Vienna rings in the New Year, temple bells play an important role in Japanese New Year’s Eve. In a ceremony called joya-no-kane, Buddhist temples all over the country ring their large bronze bells. It depends on the temple how formally this is done; for example in Kyoto’s Chion-in, one of the most famous spots for the ceremony, the bell is rung exclusively by the monks of the temple, whereas in many smaller temples, even normal people can ring the bell. In any case, the bell is struck 108 times at New Year’s Eve – once for each of man’s earthly desires which, according to Buddhism, cause suffering. Each time the bell is rung, one desire is eliminated from those who listen, so they can start the New Year with a clean slate.

A Buddhist temple bell is a huge affair, the one in Chion in being 3.3 metres high, 2,7 metres in diameter, and 70 tons heavy. It is rung – or rather, struck – from the outside with a large wood beam, and it takes 17 people to do so. The sound of such a temple bell is very loud and deep, it carries a long way and when you are close enough, it resonates deep within your body. Only when the tone has completely stopped, the bell is struck again – so, the larger the bell, the longer the joya-no-kane will take. The starting time depends on the temple. In Chion-in it is timed so that the 108th strike happens in the New Year. Other temples have different rules. This time, I could year temple bells from around 11 pm to 1:30 am approximately.

Hatsumode
Once the joya-no-kane is over, it is time for your hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year. People go and make their first prayers, buy new Omamori charms of various types (from general luck charms to getting married and easy delivery), and buy O-mikuji, their “personal” fortunes for the New Year. Those fortunes are either paper strips directly pulled out of a jar, or you draw a piece of wood with a number on it in exchange for the fortune strip. There are both luck and curse fortunes of various degrees, and a neutral one. No matter which one you draw, it is best to leave it at the shrine, tied to a pine tree if possible. A curse will stay at the shrine and wait for your return, and a good luck will multiply for you at the shrine. Especially now this is popular, I have never seen such masses of O-mikuji tied to twigs around shrines…

In Kyoto, the most popular shrines for hatsumode are Yasaka jinja, Heian jingu, and Fushimi-inari Taisha. As you should perform your hatsumode as soon as possible after New Year, these places are packed with people. I have heard that Fushimi-Inari alone drew 2.5 million visitors in the first three days of this New Year…

My New Year? I went with my housemates to Shinyodo temple where we were allowed to ring the temple bell. I did not count, but we must have been cleansing ourselves of desire #35 or somesuch, hopefully something serious. After having some of the hot tea served there by the monks (it was freezing…) we went to Yoshida shrine for our hatsumode. I did not buy a charm, but I prayed for a new job – you’ll never know. Anyway, as fireworks are forbidden in Kyoto, the New Year came very quietly, without making a huge entrance like in the West. I liked it, it very much matches my own style…

Busy!

I had a few very nice days to celebrate the New Year in a truly Japanese fashion, which essentially means I was very busy…

On New Year’s Eve, together with my housemates, I went to a Buddhist temple near Ebisu’s for the joyo-no-kane, the ringing of the bell, and right afterwards we went to a nearby shrine for hatsumode, the first visit to a shrine in a new year. I will write a bit more about this in my weekend post tomorrow.

Yesterday, some American friends of mine visited Kyoto, and we went to Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine – together with what seemed like a million other Japanese who went there for their hatsumode. Fushimi Inari, together with Heian Jingu and Yasaka Jinja are the most popular hatsumode destinations for Kyotoites and many other people from all over Japan come here on this occasion.

And finally, today, I was invited through my housemate to a party at her Japanese teacher’s place. We learnt how to prepare Okonomiyaki, a Japanese speciality especially popular in Hiroshima, and ate a ton of other wonderful Japanese food amidst the teacher’s family and other students. It was great fun, and an interesting glimpse into Japanese family life (and a beautiful old machiya too) but all the eating and drinking made me very tired…

All the small shops closed on January 1st (a few of them even before), as this is one of the holidays where everybody is expected to travel home. Hence, now is maybe not the right time for extensive travel plans, although, as I have found out when I was travelling during Obon two years ago, only transportation is crowded, it is relatively easy to get a hotel room (if you’re not too picky that is). I expect the city to go back to normal this weekend however, and it should become a bit more quiet in the next weeks now that the really cold part of winter will finally come to Kyoto…

Happy New Year!

Construction

Walking through Kyoto these days I noticed that right now seems to be the season for road repairs. Lots of roads are being repaired or at least have their road markings repainted, and many more are already finished and present themselves with a brand new, shiny black asphalt covering.

While my European self finds it a bit odd to have this kind of work done in the middle of winter, it actually makes perfect sense: The temperature is just right considering that you are working with hot asphalt, it’s not freezing so there is no snow and in general it is comparatively dry, and, most importantly, the influx of tourists and their cars and buses – Kyoto is famous for both hanami cherry blossoms and koyo autumn colors and seems not to rest in between – has dimished to a mere trickle.

The whole work appears to be extremely organised. Only comparatively small portions of a road are blocked at any one time, but the result still looks seamless when it is completed after a week or two. What is interesting to see is that there is always at least one person on each end of the road block with reflecting sticks regulating the traffic, whether this is actually necessary or not, for example, even if there are additional traffic lights. The Japanese take to full employment?

In any case, I guess construction work is one way of making the city “clean” for the next year. And there is a lot of that going on right now! Wandering around the streets I have seen people cleaning the pavement before their houses, or their cars. I have seen one woman cleaning the floor of her little bar with what looked like a very small brush. One man was busy replanting his bonsai trees… Looking around my room I guess it would benefit from some old year cleaning as well to start fresh and clean into the new one… I better get started!

Kinkaku-ji

The Golden Pavillion Temple Kinkaku-ji is the most striking of all the famous sights in Kyoto and should be on the very top of your must-see list when coming here. The Golden Pavillion is the main building of a zen temple – officially known as Rokuon-ji, Deer Garden temple – in Northern Kyoto and it is golden indeed: The two top floors of the three story building which stands in a large lake with several islands are covered in gold leaf on laquer and a golden phoenix crowns the centre of the roof. If you look closely you may notice that each floor is representative of a different architectural style: The ground floor is typical of the Heian period style palace buildings called shinden, the first floor is a guilded version of the bukke style of samurai residences, and the top floor – covered in gold leaf in- and outside – is built in the style of a Chinese zen hall. The pavillion houses Buddha statues and similar relics, but it is not open to the public.

The pavillion and the garden date back to the late 14th century, when the third shogun of the Muramachi period, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, bought the property from another statesman and built his own villa there. After his death, according to his wishes, the whole estate was turned into a Buddhist temple. The golden pavillion is the only “original” structure left from that period; I use the quotes because the building has burnt down and been restored several times in its history, the last time it was destroyed by arson in 1950 and rebuilt five years later. Below are the old abbot’s quarters, with beautiful screen paintings – but it’s not open to the public either.

The large garden surrounding Kinkaku-ji is truly original though, and considered an especially fine example of garden design from the Muromachi period. The garden was meant to represent the pure land of Buddha in this world. The pavillion lies in a pond with ten small islands, and on a clear day the impression of the golden building is heightened by its reflection in the water.

The one-way path leads you along the pond to the back of the pavillion and from there into the garden, where a number of little springs can be seen and several places where people throw coins for luck. The second floor of the garden on top of the hill contains another little pond called Anmintaku that allegedly never dries up, and the Sekkatei, an Edo-period tea house that has been specifically built to enjoy the view on Kinkaku-ji during the afternoon – the best hours to view it.

Dinner

My housemate invited me to (a slightly belated) Christmas dinner tonight. Because she’s French – and obviously missing French food – we went to a tiny creperie near Teramachi – only 6 seats.

The owner, chef, and only employee is a young Japanese man with an interesting story: When he was a child he knew that one day he would have his own business, his own shop. However, as adult he worked as flight attendant for airlines in Europe. He spent seven years in Great Britain (and speaks great English). Despite his job he still liked travelling and on one of his trips to Britanny he came across French crepes – and there it struck him: This is what I want to do! He spent several more vacations in Britanny to learn how to make (sweet) crepes and (hearty) galettes, gave up his job at the airline, and now owns this very little restaurant in Kyoto…

True story, true outcome – he seems to be very happy with what he’s doing, just like all the people who follow their dreams… Very inspiring!

Merry Christmas!

Tenno Tanjobi

Today was a national holiday in Japan – the emperor’s 80th birthday. His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Akihito was born on December 23rd, 1933 in Tokyo as the fifth child but first son of emperor Showa (Hirohito). He ascended to the throne on January 7th, 1989, with the official enthronement taking place on November 12, 1990 after 22 months of preparations. His era bears the name Heisei.

I have not noticed anything big going on in Kyoto (I didn’t go downtown though), but tenno tanjobi is one of only two days (the other one is January 2nd) when the general public is allowed to enter the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. You may then even write a greeting to the emperor and as this page states “The Greeting Book will be duly forwarded to its highest destination as the expression of your warm congratulations” there could even be a chance of him reading it! This year, there were three appearances of the emperor and his immediate family planned on a balcony of one of the palace buildings and people go there and wave little Japanese flags to greet the emperor. This year, there were about 24.000 visitors, and as the entrance gates close after only two hours, you can imagine how terribly crowded the plaza must have been on which the people waited for the emperor…

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty!

Postcards

Today, I wrote a few nengajo – New Year’s postcards – to Japanese friends. Nengajo are rather unspectacular postcards, and just like Christmas cards in the West, there are thousands of variations, from the ones with Disney motives and other cartoons, to nengajo with elaborate calligraphy and paintings of the year’s animal from the Chinese zodiac (2014 is the Year of the Horse, by the way).

I went to the Loft a few days ago to buy my cards; it seems that there are literally thousands of them sold every day, as the procedure was a bit … unusual. First of all, the real cards are not on display, meaning you can’t just take them. What you get is a large display wall showing the different designs, each one wrapped in a heavy plastic envelope. When you have made your choice(s), you pick up one of those envelopes and go to the cashier, where you are asked how many you want. In the case of the Loft, you can’t buy a single card – you buy them per package, each containing four cards.

I paid 540 yen for them and was rather happy with it, after all this is Japan, and prices are steep. The nice cashier explained that because it says “New Year’s Card” on the back, the post office will deliver them on January 1st automatically, and I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to explain this at the post office… This is one of the nice things about those New Year’s cards, if you mail them between December 15th and New Year’s, the post office will deliver them on the right day – in Japan, of course, it won’t work abroad unfortunately. It must be an extremely busy time, I have heard that students and other part time workers are hired just to get all the mail out on January 1st.

You are supposed to send out New Year’s cards to essentially everybody: family, colleagues, teachers of any kind, people you did business with in the last year,… The only people you are not allowed to send a New Year’s card to is those who had a death in the family – the idea is “how can they have a Happy New Year if there is somebody missing?” and it would be rude to wish them one. How do you know that? Well, the bereaved are supposed to send out cards – well before the deadline of course – apologizing that they won’t send any New Year’s cards because of a recent death in the family… Japanese etiquette – truly a minefield…

Anyway, I wrote my cards today and I hope people won’t be offended by the fact that my handwriting in Japanese resembles that of a 5 year old – another one of those etiquette things – nengajo are at least addressed in handwriting to show off your skills in calligraphy – and posted them immediately. The big surprise came at the post office: Apparently the price of the stamp was included in the price of the cards! That means I only had to pay the extra 20 yen for the cards going abroad – what a pleasant surprise!