Discover Japan

Two weeks ago (Oops! It has been long time since the last time I published the blog!), I gave a lecture at the Purdue University. ...It isn't a lie! The class is the "Global Awareness." Students' majors are agriculture, but they have learned about various culture in this class. Every time, they have a guest speaker who are from another countries. On February 27th, a speaker was...me! who are from Japan! My friend, Junko had been the speaker. However she moved California, so I took this role from her.

When I heard this offer from Junko, I hesitated to do it. Because? "Introducing Japan" seemed too broad! I think Junko is one of the best girl who represents "the Japanese." She has certifications of the tea ceremony, Japanese flower arrangement, and calligraphy. She is intelligent enough to answer various questions, and speaks English fluently! On the other hand...me!? I can speak anything about the "Japanese weddings," but I am not sure I understand "the Japanese traditional spirit!" I am one who quit calligraphy class because it was boring. I am one who belonged to a tea ceremony club, but didn't go to lessons. I went there only when they had drinking parties! I was afraid if I was not qualified to be a representive of Japan...but, as an "international emcee-to-be," I wanted to seize a chance of ANY big presentations! So, I spoke up, "I will!"

Before the presentation, I decided to have these three objectives.
1. Don't make the students bored!
2. Don't go deep into specific aspects! Explain many topics briefly!
For example, I would talk about tea ceremony. But I wouldn't explain their sects, like "Ura-senke" or "Omote-senke."
3. Make them feel "Wow! I want to go to Japan!"

I divided my presentation into four groups. 1. Basic information about Japan 2. Japanese traditional culture 3. New culture which has influenced in the U.S. 4. Nowadays Japanese situations. Now, let me write my script here! Would you like to know..."the basic information about Japan?"

Do you know where Japan is? Japan is an island country in East Asia. It is located in the Pacific Ocean, lies to the east of China, Korea, and Russia. It’s a very small country, isn’t it? (The map is from;http://swdcwww.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/wdc/acmap/japanmap-j.html) The size is a little bit smaller than California, but about 128 million people are living here. Japan has the world's tenth largest population. Because of this small size, the density is about 12 times that of the U.S. The capital city, Tokyo, has almost 10% of the Japanese polulation. Tokyo is very big city. Very crowded. Therefore, when we commute, we have to endure crowded trains. My husband was one of the crowd before we came here... It may look terrible, but Tokyo is an exciting city. We can find many intriguing places and interesting people. I love Tokyo! Before I got married, I lived in Sapporo. Sapporo is the capital city of the northernmost island. Sapporo looks like this. (The image is from; http://www.hankyu-travel.com/guide/hokkaido/festival.html) It’s a cold city. Sometimes it is colder than Lafayette. Also, we have much much more snow. Therefore, we have an annual snow festival in Sapporo. If you go to the festival, you can see many buildings or sculptures made of snow. However, if you go to Okinawa..it is not on the map, but it is a southern island. (The image is from; http://4travel.jp/dynamic/search20.php?q=%B2%AD%C6%EC&h=1 )The weather is very hot like Hawaii. Additionally, Japan is a mountainous island. The highest mountain and the most popular one is Mount Fuji, which is located in Yamanashi Prefecture, near Tokyo. The fields are green tea fields. I think this scenery represents a Japanese characteristic well. (The picture is from; http://www.scenery.jp/alps/index-17-1.html This Web-site is pretty amazing! You should visit here!!)We have many mountains and fields. As you can see from those pictures, even if Japan is a small country, we can enjoy various nature depending on a city.

Next, language. Japanese language has three kinds of writing. Hiragana (おおはし　けいこ）is the easiest one. Many children start to learn the language by using Hiragana. Katakana（オオハシ　ケイコ） is used mostly when we describe Japanese-English words, like a cake, bus, Christmas…But we can also describe our name in Katakana. Many Asian people share Kanji, Chinese characters（大橋　恵子）. So, if my Chinese friends or Korean friends see my name in the Kanji version, they can figure out “Oh! Your name means Big Bridge, a Blessed Child.

Let’s talk about food. Traditionally, the main Japanese food policy is we should take “one soup, a bowl of rice, and three side dishes” at every meal. Our staple food is rice. However, many of us…especially, young people also love to eat pasta or breads. One soup means basically miso soup. Miso is fermented soybean paste. In the case of this picture, the main dish is meatballs and some veggies I guess. This side dish in the middle is vegitable and seaweed salad, and the other one is pieces of boiled potato. My mother was a nutritionist. She said we should have over 30 different kinds of food in a day. To have many kinds of food, the “One soup and three side dishes” theory is good for us. Especially, I think most Japanese people have been trying to eat fresh vegetables as many as we can.

Next, religion. Which religion do Japanese believe? There is no formal record, but one private survey says, “45% of the Japanese believe in Shinto: Have you ever heard of Shinto? Shinto is the ancient religion of Japan. Our ancestors believed there are many gods in the world, not only one. When I was a child, my grandmother told me, “You will be scolded by a nature-god if you spoil the flowers.” Or “You will be punished by a fertility god if you leave your food.” and so on. In Shinto, two gods gave birth to the Japanese islands. Back to the survey, 49% are Buddhist: 1% are Christian: The other 5% believe in other religions. However, I am not sure this survey is correct because many Japanese don’t think they are religious, including me. A typical Japanese pattern is like this. When she was a child, she was celebrated at a particular age like one, three, seven, at a Shinto shrine. But she celebrates her wedding as the Christian style. And when she dies, her funeral is organized as the Buddhist style. I am not a specialist of religion, so please don’t ask deep questions about that. However, in my personal opinion, many Japanese cherish our ancestors’ customs and morals instead of religion.

By the way, I was a wedding emcee. Many people celebrate their weddings based on their religion. However, we are not so religious, so many Japanese choose their favorite styles. According to a “Wedding Trend Survey” by a Japanese bridal magazine, in 2006, 68% of newlyweds chose the Christian ceremony style even though our Christian population is just 1%. 16% are the Shinto style. 15% are the Intimate style. The Intimate style is not related to religion. Couples swear their eternal love, not to a god, but to their families and friends, intimate people. It was a trendy wedding style when I got married, 6 years ago. However, now, many people want to reminisce about the traditional Japanese style. So, the Shinto style wedding is getting popular again.

Now...are you ready to move "the Japanese traditonal culture" section!?