Coming of Age Day

Someone mentioned that I had missed the whole Seijinshiki "Coming of Age Day" in January. True. Leiya is still 19. She'll be 20 this year and one officially becomes an adult at age 20 in Japan. So next January's "Coming of Age Day" will be the big one for her.

Already I am weekly getting telephone salespeople and "junk mail" telling me that I'd better hurry up and decide what we're going to do about Seijinshiki. Actually I think they're right. If Leiya is going to do this then we need to start thinking about it pretty soon.

What does it mean to become an adult? Unfortunately in Japan it SEEMS to mean that 20 is the age that the kids are legally allowed to drink. There should be more to becoming an adult than just being given free reign to get drunk. Cities throughout Japan will hold a special ceremony with the mayor and city officials welcoming the young people into adulthood. True, the speeches may be a bit dry and reflect on the seriousness of the responsibilities adulthood holds but everyone attends the ceremonies and there the big party starts. Every year we see on TV where the kids/new adults have gone completely wild with their drinking parties (in the middle of their ceremonies!) and have to be taken away by the police! Adults? Some of those kids haven't even gotten past the wild animal stage!

The other thing about Seijinshiki is that more than thinking about adulthood, the kids are having a grand reunion with friends from jr. high school days. In jr. high all the kids attended the local jr. high. In high school they all scattered to different high schools in the surrounding cities. And some of the kids go on to college or start working or have families. Seijinshiki is the time for everyone to get together and see what everyone has become. Party time for sure and yes, a great excuse to drink and loosen up a bit for the first awkward reunions.

Seijinshiki is also a time for the young people to get dressed up. Almost all the girls will wear kimono as do some of the boys too. Their one and only time probably since they were 7 (another tradition in Japan) and their own wedding day. This is where we've got to be foresighted.

Kimonos for girls run about $2000 to rent. Yes, rent. For one day. Sometimes you can keep the kimono longer for photographing purposes but Seijinshiki is only a couple of hours long anyway. Most of the kids shed their kimonos so that they can party more. Kimono shops have racks and racks of rental kimonos and all the implements needed to make a stunning outfit, but everyone is going to rent them at the same time right? So if you want to get a "good" kimono you've got to make your reservations early. That's why 11 months in advance I'm being encouraged to make an appointment for Leiya.

Very few people can actually put on (themselves) or dress (someone else) in kimono. You need a professional kimono dresser to do a good job of making the kimono tight but comfortable and beautiful too. Obis (wide brocade belts) are intricately tied in wonderful shapes. Hair has to be set and styled and make-up has to be applied perfectly. And then for all this work, photos must be professionally taken to record the great event (and absolutely beautiful girl!) So you can see where some of the $2000 goes. And of course insurance fees in case, heaven forbid, the girl spills a cup of coffee in her lap!

So. What are we going to do? Tetsu says if Leiya wants to come back for Seijinshiki and get dressed in kimono then by all means let's do it. Cost? We'll start saving. (Should have started 5 years ago!) But she's not going to be able to come back ahead of time and try on kimonos and put one on reserve for next January. She's going to have to leave that job to me and she isn't too thrilled about that. When we start talking about it I say...

"So you're going to make a quick trip back in January for Seijinshiki and skip college classes?"

and Leiya says,

"Forget it. It's not that important. Just coming back to Japan will cost too much. I don't really need to wear a kimono..."

But this is the only chance to get dressed up. This is the only chance all her friends will get together. It really is a big day in a Japanese young person's life, and Leiya is still a Japanese young person though she has spent the past 4 years in the States.

What to do? What to do? When Leiya was 7 we did the whole kimono deal for "Seven-Five-Three Day" and I balked at the cost of that too, but I am so happy that we splurged for that! I'm sure if Leiya comes back and dresses in kimono that we'll always be happy we made the effort for her...

By the way. This is a picture of Leiya and her friend Makie when they were seven years old on "Seven-Five-Three Day." Leiya is in the purple kimono, Makie in the pink.

And THIS is Makie at age 20 for her own Seijinshiki. Sigh.. Now isn't that a BEAUTIFUL young adult!

At the shrine

Are you getting tired of kimonos? One more post.

At the end of November is Seven-Five-Three Day.  This is a blessing ceremony for children ages 7,5, and 3.  Three year old and seven year old girls will get dressed up in kimono.  For boys the age is five years old.  Most families will have professional photographs taken and then go to a shrine for a blessing ceremony or at least to pray at the altar.  The day Tetsu and I were in Ashikaga, we walked through the shrine grounds and came across lots and lots of families bringing their children.  So the following pictures are of little girls all formally dressed up for the special day.  This is a different type of kimono from what I showed yesterday.  These are fancily embroidered.

 

The shrine was beautiful with the ginkgo trees all golden.

 

We noticed that the father in this family was a foreigner.

 

 It is difficult to maneuver those steps in all the finery.

 

Is this little girl happy to be the center of attention?

The leaves really made the shrine grounds sparkle!

The maple trees were not to be outdone.

The parents were having trouble getting these cute twins to smile at the same time.  The one little girl is too absorbed in the ginkgo leaf!

I remember doing all this with Leiya.  We didn't visit the shrine but we did all the dress up and hair styling.  It was very pricey to do too!  But I am very glad we splurged on that special day.

Tetsu's pride and joy.  Both have sure changed in 17 years, haven't they?

Inside a Rainbow

I'm still quilting the Bargello. I think I've decided to name the quilt "Inside a Rainbow". I keep quilting in border designs and it looks like a rainbow getting larger and larger. I need to think about stopping pretty soon. Too much of a good thing is... too much.

Our church had Blessing the Children Day on Sunday. This is similar to the Japanese custom of Seven-Five-Three Day where children are taken at those ages to the shrine to be blessed. Right now in our church we have about 6 families with children and they were called up to the front of the church to be prayed for. Small church, huh?

Cat news. I do not know what is happening with the litter of kittens down the street. But a couple of days ago a DIFFERENT neighbor was walking her dog and carrying a kitten. This is the same neighbor that considered taking Mi when we first found her. I was so disappointed when they decided not to.

"God, why do You give me these animals? Why won't You move our neighbors' hearts to take this kitty?"

Of course since then Tetsu and I have delighted in Mi and been thankful that God wanted this kitty to be ours. When I saw the neighbor carrying the kitten I stopped and admired it a bit.

"We found it. It is blind! We took it to the vet but there's nothing to be done for it. Well, then we'll just have to take good care of it. It has become part of our family."

Talk about being confirmed that God uses all things to work for the best! If our neighbor had taken Mi a couple of years ago they might not have so readily been willing to take in a handicapped cat. I'm so happy that both Mi and this new kitten have good homes!

And my son wrote this week telling me that he too has taken in a cat. I guess it followed him home from somewhere and though he and his girlfriend put up posters and went door to door looking for the cat's owners, the cat has moved in. I forgot to ask what he's named it.

Tetsu's comment was,

"Like mother, like son."

Takumi has always loved cats so I'm not really surprised.

What time is it?

I was at the kindergarten yesterday.

In the five year old class there is one boy, T-kun, who has some social challenges but is actually an extremely bright boy. He sometimes gets focused on something else and isn't happy about coming to English time and on those days he will sit in the corner sobbing silently but usually he enjoys English and waves his hand, blurting out answers and wanting to do it all. While many of the 5 year olds sort of sit and absorb by chance whatever English I am trying to teach, T-kun most often plays an active, noisy role in my class.

This month I've been teaching numbers.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Eight, nine, ten, eleven... twelve!"

Okay, if they can count to twelve, I can bring out the wooden clock and see how far they can get with time. I realize that many of these 5 year olds can't even tell time in Japanese let alone attempt a stab at English, but since they learned to count to twelve...

"The little hand is on ONE. And the big hand is on TWELVE. It's ONE O'CLOCK. See, when the hand is on TWELVE we say O'CLOCK. That's the easy part. But you've got to remember what number the little hand is pointing at."

"This is ONE O'CLOCK. And with the little hand pointing at two, it is TWO O'CLOCK. What time is it if the little hand is pointing at THREE?"

I had a whole bunch of children waving their hands at me wanting to give the answer. Same with 4:00, 5:00 and 6:00. But by 7:00, the hands started to thin. Not that many kids can count post 6. T-kun sat counting on his fingers, then frantically waving his hand. Ah, T-kun can probably answer the 12:00. I let him wave and called on other children. 8:00, 9:00, even the little autistic boy knows 10. He could answer 10:00 with help. 11:00. That's a hard one. T-kun was still waving his hand but I called on another waving child. Finally 12:00...

"T-kun. What time is it now? The little hand and the big hand are pointing at TWELVE."

And T-kun confidently answered,

"It's O'CLOCK O'CLOCK!"

It's what? The kindergarten teacher and I looked at each other puzzled.

"It's... OHHHhhh!!!"

T-kun was really thinking very logically. I DID say that when the hand is pointing at TWELVE we say O'CLOCK, so O'CLOCK O'CLOCK is a wonderful answer! I sure praised him for his thinking skills and of course taught him that in this case the time was TWELVE O'CLOCK.

I love seeing the world through children's eyes.