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...

How to Gratify Japanese. (This is the smartest way!)

Heya. It’s been a while since I last posted a diary entry. I’m so surprised by how easy it is for the heat to rob me of my work ethic… Oops! It’s never certain if I will study or not...

By the way, I saw a lot of decorations for the Star Festival while driving today. So I’d like to write about this festival!

In my dictionary, there’s an example phrase,

“The event was introduced into Japan in the 8th century and became popular during the Edo Period.”

In a collection of Myriad Leaves (万葉集　manyo-shu), some people made Tanka (短歌 thirty-one syllabled verse) for the festival. Some empty-headed Japanese may think it is unique to Japan, but actually, it is quite different from our traditional culture. This event has lasted for a very, very long time here, it is easy to for us to misunderstand the event because Japanese people love to see stars. But in fact, as the example sentence says, it “was introduced” into Japan. And Japan is a strange nation because people are not interested in stars at all.

The other day I read an article on Homer’s Odyssey on Scientific American. It was quite interesting. (If you want to read this article click here.)
According to this article, one reason why western people mythologized the universe is that they wanted to record the movements of stars and those events. How smart they were! By contrast, we don’t have many myths like them in Japan. For ancient Japanese, it was worth making Tanka of the moon, but not stars.

Also, I read a book the other day on my way to Tokyo. The author of the book kind of explained clearly on this topic.

Europeans had such a fertile imagination that they could make the notion of constellations under the sky. But Japanese didn’t look and gaze up at the sky. They preferred to look at the moon reflected in a pond or the moon shadow. This difference is so huge. Japanese put more importance on something they can absolutely see than something ideological. They realistically sought salvation in absence of absolutes (transience) rather than supposing a super terrestrial God exists. They thought it was better to give some “actual gift items” to express their gratitude. Japanese official diplomatic delegations sent to China during the Sui dynasty (遣隋使 Ken Zui Shi) and the Tang Dynasty (遣唐使 Ken Tou Shi) also returned to Japan with a lot of books, pottery, paintings, and so on, as the evidence of their hard work or accomplishment. Yes! Japanese is a really realistic nation!

I totally agree with the author. (sorry, it was so difficult for me to translate the book that I probably made a lot of mistakes, and it makes the idea hard to understand.) Japanese are existentialists to some extent. So, if you really want to express your feeling, just give someone a present without words! This is my visceral advice. haha!

And, I heard a real ridiculous piece of info on TV last night while having dinner. It (the TV commercial) said, “we’ll finish our TV program at 11:00 p.m. on Monday, because of the Star festival. If we do so, we can see stars more clearly.” (I don’t remember the exact phrase, but it was something like that.) I can’t help think the commercial is dodging responsibility by shifting the blame… Am I wrong?

Maybe I’ll write about this event again tomorrow… Because the actual festival is tomorrow.

-Mu

What my aunt told me was...

Hiya. I was so sleepy last night that I could not finish writing about what my aunt told me. Now I would love to write about Kabuki again.

Most Japanese know that Kabuki is one of the important Japanese traditional performing arts, although they do not go to see it often. The main reason of this is the price of the play. We have to pay a lot, if we would like to see it clearly. And since the play uses classical Japanese, it is a bit difficult to understand.

Although there are somethings that keep us from going to Kabuki theater, Kabuki is still worth seeing. The colorful clothes, tools, and unique music should not be missed! No wonder there are a lot of people who love it.

My aunt said to me that she went to see a movie on Friday. I asked her what kind of movie she saw. She replied, “Cinema Kabuki.” Cinema Kabuki is not the name of the movie.

Cinema Kabuki is one of new genres of Japanese movies (the producers say it is not a movie, though.). It is the record of Kabuki. (Not a documentary film.) I could not find the English explanation of this, but there’s a Japanese one. →シネマ歌舞伎とは
Also it is quite a bad movie, though, there’s the video of Cinema Kabuki on YouTube. If you would like to see it, click here.

Whenever I see a Kabuki video, I’m surprised at how feminine the actors are! They are my role models sometimes. Gosh, they have it going on and are hot numbers, although I hate to admit it…

-Mu

What my aunt told me is...

Hi. I went to Tokyo this weekend. It was quite meaningful, because I could talk with the staff from universities in the U.K.

Now (well, I knew it for a bit time ago, but I didn’t want to admit it), I have to practice writing an essay more and more. All of them advised me that I need a higher score on TOEFL in order to enroll in their schools. Fortunately, they also said to me that I could make it, if I study a bit more and do my best on the test. (But, doing my best is easier said than done!!!)

Well, I would like to write about one aspect of Japanese culture today, too.
While in Tokyo this weekend, I stayed at my uncle’s. (He had already gone to bed when I got there, though.) My aunt told me an interesting account (??) of Japanese traditional play, Kabuki.

First of all, I would like to write about the meaning of “Kabuki(歌舞伎).” The word Kabuki is said to originally come from the verb, “Kabuku(傾く).” Kabuku means to behave and wear eccentric clothes, in order to attract people’s attention. (And, one of other meanings is to play kabuki.) Since the first ruler of Kaga(加賀藩), Maeda Toshiie(前田利家), was good at fighting by a long arrow and scrapper, he was called “kabuki mono” in his youth. (He was also said, in the historical document, to have been Oda Nobunaga’s (織田信長, one of the most famous and popular military commanders in Japan) peg boy.)...double parentheses, maybe this is too many!

Second, what we should know is all the actors are male. Women were/are not allowed even to be on the stage, like other Japanese traditional performing arts or sports. It is quite interesting, but the creator of Kabuki was a WOMAN. (Izumo no Okuni 出雲阿国)

And, now I would like to tell you about the new kabuki thing I heard from my aunt, but I’m so sleepy tonight…

-Mu
・・・・・・・・・・
(2008.7.2)

(He was also said, in the historical document, to have been Oda Nobunaga’s (織田信長, one of the most famous and popular military commanders in Japan) peg boy.)

...double parentheses, maybe this is too many!

Ok, then, how about this?
↓　↓　↓
(He was also said, in the historical document, to have been a peg boy of Oda Nobunaga (織田信長), who is one of the most famous and popular military commanders in Japan.)

By the way, do you know the Japanese skate player, Oda Nobunari (織田信成)? He's the descendant of Oda Nobunaga. (It is said he doesn't like to be said like that, though. I don't care anyway!)

When I see a spider at night…

In rainy season, I often see spiders around my neighborhood in the morning and at night. What kind of feeling do people from other countries have about spiders? Oh, there’s a story (also a movie) called “Charlotte’s Web” by E. B. White!

In Japan, there is also a story called “The Spider’s Thread” by Akutagawa Ryunosuke. I love this story, because it appears to me that the story sheds light on a man’s true nature, kind of. (If you want to read a part of the story, click here.) This story is for children, but I don’t think they can understand the whole story thoroughly. This story was once said to have been influenced by a short story from “Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevski or by one of the stories in “Christ Legends”, by Selma Lagerlöf (Selma Ottilia Lagerloef, a novel prize winner). But, in fact, it is known that when Akutagawa wrote this story, he was influenced by the work Karma (by Paul Carus), translated by Suzuki Daisetsu, (a.k.a. D.T.Suzuki). Well, do you know Suzuki Daisetsu, a famous religion scholar, is from Kanazawa? If you want to know more about him, click here

By the way, in the story of “The Spider’s Thread”, Buddha gave the spider’s thread to Kandata since he helped a spider one day.

But!
Once I tried to do the same thing at night, but my grandma told me not to do that and said, “Kill it!”
According to her, it doesn’t bring good luck. On the other hand, a spider seen in the morning is not whammy at all, so she told me not to kill it.

Do you have any interesting stories or memories of spiders?

-Mu

A restaurant in Shibuya.

Hi!
I wrote about an article about whaling I was reading last night. So, I’d like to write about it more today.

When it comes to whaling, I always remember the restaurant, Kujira-ya (元祖くじら屋) in Shibuya. There is a slogan of the restaurant, “protect our food culture” (or something like this) on the wall there. Since I went to a university in Shibuya, I always wanted to go there, but I had no chance to go there, unfortunately.

When I was in primary school and junior high school, sometimes I had chances to have whale at school lunch. I liked it.

Whale is an endangered animal, so I know our culture is a bit controversial… But I wanna go to Kujira-ya someday in the future!!!

-Mu

An irritating title

Hi. I know it’s real late at night, but I can’t sleep because the title of a BBC news article irritates me soo much.
The title is “Peace Pledges as Whale Meet Opens”
(If you want to read this article, click here!)

“Peace pledges” is a noun?
I looked it up in my dictionary and it says pledge is countable.

Is “meet” an adjective?
My dictionary also says that it means “right or suitable”, if it is an adjective.

Is “open” a verb?

Woo, this title irritates me a lot. Help!

-Mu

・・・・・・・・・・
(2008.6.24)
A Japanese man told me the answer…

Peace pledges (are made) as [=when] meet opens [=convene]

It is difficult to understand headlines!!!
・・・・・・・・・・
(2008.7.2)
look up
2: look (something) up
if you look up information in a book, on a computer etc, you try to find it there:
*Look the word up in your dictionary.
*I'll just look up the train times.

to look for information in a book, on a computer etc
search • surf • look up • go through • trawl/trawl through • scour • browse

-Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

The rainy season has started.

Heya!
It was absolutely pouring down this morning.
Some people say they don’t like rain because it depresses them, but I think it is better than the steaming hot situation just before it’s about to rain. (It may sound strange, but I do like the smell just before it rains. haha.)

Everything seems to be damp during rainy season. Books, clothes, curtain, floor, everything! But I can’t but think about how great the ancient Japanese were. Wooden houses suit this climate. They absorb humidity. (well, to some extent... But if it were not for the wood frames, the situation would be worse in a house without an air conditioner, I bet.)

As for graves, some ancient people (from the era known as 古墳時代 Kofun Period or Tumulus Period) used stone to build chambers like European or Chinese ones (actually, it was influenced by China and Korea), though.
Several years ago, it was reported that mold grew in one of those stone chambers (高松塚古墳 Takamatsuzuka Kofun, in 奈良 Nara), and that news made us worried because there are some pictures on the wall of the chamber, which are valuable from the historical and cultural point of views (some pictures of Takamatsuzuka Kofun are a national treasure). Most Japanese know the pictures because it is used for the cover of some history textbooks.
If you want to know more about it, please look at this site. →Takamatsuzuka Tomb
(You can also see those pictures I mentioned above.)

Well, I wrote a bit too much today… but I’m thinking about writing some topics related to Japanese culture as much as I can, because it seems useful because I will have to give speeches on Japanese culture. Don’t you think so?

-Mu

・・・・・・・・・・
I don't know why it says that I posted this article at that↓ early time???

・・・・・・・・・・
(2008.7.2)
as
7: as for somebody/something
used when you are starting to talk about someone or something new that is connected with what you were talking about before:
*Kitty's got so thin. And as for Carl, he always seems to be ill.
*You can ask the others, but as for myself, I'll be busy in the office.

point of view
plural: points of view
[countable]
1: a particular way of thinking about or judging a situation
scientific/technical/business etc point of view
*From an economic point of view, the new development will benefit the town greatly.
2: someone's own personal opinion or attitude about something:
*I respect your point of view, but I'm not sure I agree with you.
from somebody's point of view
*From my point of view, there is no way they can win.

an opinion that is influenced by the situation you are in
point of view • viewpoint • standpoint • angle • perspective

-Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

Experience makes even fools wise.

Hi! I went to an event which one of my friends arranged today. It was awesome!
We made some Chinese sweets, and had a lecture about Chinese culture. I couldn’t help but thinking that about how hard my friend prepared for that.

I also have to give some speeches in the future, but I have no idea about what kind of thing I should tell talk about and, what is worse, my English is far from fluent. So I decided to keep a diary to prepare for those speeches.

Although I’ll try to write correctly, there are/will be loads of mistakes in my diary. I’d be so happy if you'd tell me them. Thanks!

-Mu

・・・・・・・・・・

Thanks to my friends' help, I could correct my errors. I don’t like to delete my original writing, because I don’t see my progress. So it may be a bit difficult to read, though, I use different colors to indicate them. (2008.6.23)
Reminder:
speech
1 [countable]
a talk, especially a formal one about a particular subject, given to a group of people:
*a campaign speech
give/make/deliver a speech
*Each child had to give a short speech to the rest of the class.
speech on/about
*a major speech on relations with China
a conference including meals and after-dinner speeches
*Collins gave the keynote speech (=most important speech).
when someone makes a speech
speech • talk • speak • talk • address • public speaking • presentation

-“Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English”