Do you know this Japanese folklore?

I got a message from one of my friends about my last post. In that message, she said to me that she discussed how much Japanese respect the elderly with her parents. Reading the message, I thought “Wait! There should have been another aspect of the Japanese thoughts towards the elderly.” But I didn’t remember what it was. On my way home, I was trying to remember. At last, I remember one of the Japanese old old Japanese folklores!

But I was still not sure, so I asked my parents about the story.
The story is “Ubaste-yama.” “Uba” means old woman, “ste” means to dump (suteru 捨てる), and “yama” means mountain. Yes! It is said that Japanese dumped their grandparents or parents in the mountain.

But it doesn’t mean the people at that time didn’t respect their parents or the elderly. They were too poor to feed all of their families. Then the old people asked the young to dump them to save their families, I heard. It is not quite obvious whether this story is true or not. But there still exist some mountains named Ubaste-yama (kind of informally, though) in Japan.

If you want to know more about this story, read this page→Ubasuteyama
Especially, my dad has praise for the movie, The Ballade of Narayama, and he told me to watch it. (Sorry, I’ve never haven't seen it yet. Oops!)

The story I heard when I was little was like the story that follows.
There was a man in a village. The villagers couldn’t harvest much that year. So his mother asked him to dump her in the mountain. He didn’t want to, but when thinking of the other family members, he had to accept her offer.
Then, he went to the mountain, carrying his mother on his back. At night, he left his mother there.
But, on his way back home, he couldn’t but think it was wrong. So he returned to where his mother was, and went back home with her after all.

Well, I don’t want to suggest, “Let’s go to Ubasteyama,” even though I’m interested in what it’s like. Because I feel alarm that I might be left there.

-Mu t

O-Bon!

Hi. I haven't written anything lately, because I was a bit busy and suffering from the terrible heat. But it’s a bit cooler today, and I feel comfortable, so I decided to write again.

It’s Obon season in Japan now. Most business people take days off and go back to their hometown, where their parents live. Now I’d like to show you an explanation article about Obon.

The O-Bon (or Urabon-e) festival, held for three days either in mid-July or mid-August, welcomes back the spirits of the dead for an annual visit to their homes. It is basically a Buddhist festival but it is also closely connected with Shinto ancestor worship. Unlike Christian All Souls’ Day, held in the gloom of early winter, the festival is held at the brightest time of year; it is a mixture of fond memories and ancestor respect with lively communal events such as Bon-odori dancing. Many families try hard to get together, just as they do at the New Year.
-“Are Japanese Cats Left-handed?”

When I lived in Tokyo, we had this event in mid-July. My aunt is originally from Tokyo, and she said we should do that then. (??) But, most people in Tokyo now are not originally from Tokyo, so they have this event in mid-August and go back to their hometown around then.

My aunt once said to me, “I don’t care what you believe in, but do respect your ancestors.” She knows her husband (my uncle) and his brother (my dad) don’t believe in God, and they told me not to believe anyone or in anything again and again. They just told me to believe myself. But even for them, Obon is a very important event, because they love their family. It may be because they experienced real tough things, when in China (especially coming back from Manchuria) and several years after that.

Anyway, I also respect and appreciate my ancestors. If they didn’t exist, I couldn’t be here!

*I don’t want to mention the World War Ⅱ here, because I have no energy to do so. But I want to say this. I’m really happy to be friends with people from other countries, which were enemies then. We had better not to forget the tragedy, but it is wrong to hate each other because of it. We should remember to tell our children not to do the same thing again.

-Mu

Love is an ideal thing, marriage is a real thing

Heya. It’s so sticky today!
But I’m fine, because now I don’t have to work as hard as before. I can concentrate on the outsourcing project. All I have to do at my office is check e-mails and financial statements, and write complaints to the China office. Sweet! Of course, I sometimes have to write the reports about this project, and re-plan the procedures, though, still I’m the boss of the project. So I can do whatever I want to! haha.

My friend asked me about the Shinto style wedding yesterday. So, I read some article about it. Nowadays, it is more popular to have a Christian style wedding than to have a Shinto style wedding. Do you know why???
Because it is cheaper!
This tells us how much Japanese people don’t believe in god… We choose the cheaper ceremony rather than our religious (...kind of) one. Barnard Shaw once said, “I’m an atheist, and I thank God for it,” but WE may have to thank God for it…

Alright, I’ll answer the question my friend asked to me. She asked me the meaning of the sake the couple have at the wedding. Here’s an article about it.

During a Shinto wedding ceremony, a san-san-ku-do (三々九度　さんさんくど) ceremony takes place. In front of the altar, the bride and groom take small sips of sacred sake from three sakazuki of different sizes. The idea that three is a lucky number, and nine even more so, is derived from ancient China. Drinking from the same cups seals the couple’s marriage vows and launches their shared life. The first sakazuki represents Heaven, the second Earth, the third Mankind.
It’s called ‘san-san-ku-do’ because the sake is drunk three times from three sakazuki (3×3 = 9), in this order; 1st groom→bride→groom, 2nd bride→groom→bride, 3rd groom→bride→groom. However, customs gradually change. At many Shinto style weddings today there is a shortened form: 1st groom→bride; 2nd bride→groom; 3rd groom→bride.

-"Are Japanese Cats Left-handed?" by Yoko Toyozaki & Stuart Varnam-Atkin

In the article above, it does not mention other meanings at all. But the idea, Heaven, Earth, Mankind is really important for Japanese culture, I suppose. Because when I learned Japanese flower arrangement, my teacher told me I have to put flowers from three different directions in order to express Heaven, Earth, and Mankind. On the other hand, the motto of my university (oops, from kindergarten to university, actually) is “the salt of the earth, the light of the world.” There’s no Mankind… Interesting, isn't it? When Japanese think harmony, it is not only between Heaven and Earth, we add Mankind to it... I don't know whether my idea is right, though.

Oops, I almost forgot to mention other meanings.
Okay, here are other meanings.
*the gratitude for ancestors
*the vow between the couple
*the prosperity of decendence
*serving for pledge
*serving for tied up (??)
*serving for couple

The whole quote I used in the title today is...

Love is an ideal thing, marriage is a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

hehe;-)
-Mu

A bit lonely... but

I thought it was not so terrible to say good-bye to my friend at first. And I did it well, because I didn’t believe it was the last time I meet her. I still believe that I can meet her, though, now I miss her, knowing that she doesn’t live here anymore.
She gave me DVDs of an American sitcom. Now I’m trying to figure them out, but it’s very challenging! But I promise you, I’ll keep trying and the next time I meet you, my English will be much better! (Oops! Hopefully…)
I found a saying by Bertrand Arthur William Russell, “Laughter is the most inexpensive and most effective wonder drug. Laughter is a universal medicine.” How nice this is! In this meaning, learning from those sitcom DVDs is a good way to communicate with native-English speakers, I guess.
It is really sad that I can’t meet my friends for a while. I’ll keep studying English in order to talk with them more the time I meet them again!

-Mu

Congrats, Me!

Well, I found out that I’d passed the Eiken pre-1st grade test today.
I didn't have a lot of confidence with the interview, so I was a bit relieved. BUT, I really wanna pass the 1st grade exam because it seems as though it makes me have confidence with my English.

Step by step.

hmmm, how long does it take to pass the 1st grade level, I wonder.

-Mu

What Did It Like?

I watched news, which reported that another version of “Tail of Genji (源氏物語)” was re-discovered, today. There are some copies of that story, but this one is a bit different from others. Experts say it is useful because we can use it to understand what the original one, which doesn’t exist now, was like. Y’know that there were no printing tools at that time, so people had to copy stories if they wanted them. Although a lot of people are fascinated with this story, I don’t like it much. While reading it, I can’t help but think, “Oh my god, this guy is really a cradle-snatcher…and I can’t understand those incestuous relationships…”

Looking at the pictures (we call it Genji-monogatari-emaki 源氏物語絵巻, or just Genji-emaki 源氏絵巻), I wonder how those ladies could stand the heat of summer. They all have long hair and wear kimonos, which really look unbelievably hot.

Anyway, it is good that we now have a clue so we can know the original story. Ah, there are many Thirty-one Syllabled Verse poems (aka. Tanka短歌) . In those days, they were used to foster relationships between men and women. The people who were good at writing them were highly likely to have boyfriends/girlfriends. At this point in time, I never would have been able to have a boyfriend. I don’t have any literary talent or the sense of humor, unfortunately.

And I wonder what the life was like in those days… did they only care about dating someone? So they loved this story that much? hmmm.

How Long Does It Take to Master Another Language?

Again, I have not written in this blog for a long time. Also, I have not been studying English much lately. I just did not want to do anything... Gee, this heat!!! I can't stand it anymore.

I watched some DVDs today. I had to study English for a test, though, I did not want to. So I took an easy way out. It's easy listening practice. But, actually, it was not that easy.

I watched "Love Actually" and "Harry Potter". I thought it was a good idea to become accustom to the British accent, but the movies only helped me lose my motivation to study English. I could understand less than 20 percent of what they said.

Whoa... somebody tell me how long it takes to master a language, PLEASE! I thought I studied a lot in the last few months, but it was not enough. Rather, my English seems to have become a bit worse, since I stopped studying. Could I keep my English level till I go to England?

Okay, enough. I wrote a full load of crap today...