Christmas in Japan

Christmas seems to be widely celebrated in Japan, but not so much as a religious holiday. Instead, it seems to be a sort of commercial holiday for most people, and everyone celebrates with either their family or their significant other.

It's traditional to celebrate Christmas with Christmas dinner and Christmas cake. Okaasan told me that Christmas dinner usually includes chicken, not ham, like what people in the U.S. are used to. My host family ate Christmas dinner a day or two early, on the 23rd. She made oven-roasted chicken for dinner, and she picked a delicious chocolate raspberry mousse cake for dessert. People sometimes give Christmas presents, but instead of a whole slew of presents under a Christmas tree, my host family had a small tree in the corner of the living room, and Okaasan gave the children each one present.

The following day I went to a German Christmas market that is set up each year in a certain area of Osaka. The market had a huge Christmas tree in the center, and when the sun set the tree was lit up. There were little booths set up around the perimeter of the square, where people sold souvenirs or food. There was also live music, mostly singing, all afternoon and evening. After the Christmas tree was lit up, I went to the top of a nearby building, rode the elevator up to the 40th floor, and saw the Osaka skyline all lit up at night. I ended the evening by going out to dinner in Sannomiya.

Kawasaki Field Trip

Yesterday I took a field trip to the Kawasaki Factory and Research Center in Nishi Akashi, to the west of Sannomiya. Kawasaki produces motorcycles, gas turbines, and robots, all of which are sold and used in Japan and across the world.

The most interesting part of the field trip was the tour inside the motorcycle factory. We saw welding areas for frames, a plating shop, and the assembly line for the motorcycles. We also saw the testing areas where finished motorcycles are taken and tested with a computer for proper acceleration and engine function.

Kawasaki seems like a very successful company. Their assembly process takes an hour and a half, and they have a mixed production system so they can build up to nine different types of motorcycles on one assembly line. They are also working on environmentally friendly technology, and their robots are used by many major manufacturing companies in Japan. They use just-in-time delivery on motorcycle parts so they don't waste money on unneeded parts. I believe that 95% of their motorcycle market is outside of Japan.

We finished up the factory visit with a video presentation, question-and-answer session, and a visit to the motorcycle museum at the factory, in which I saw many different motorcycle models, including some from the late 1960s.

Chanukah in Japan

I have not yet written about Chanukah in Japan, so I will do so now. I did not celebrate Chanukah every night because I do not have my own chanukiyah here. However, on the third night of Chanukah I went to the synagogue near my house. Usually there are not many people at the synagogue, but a fair amount of people turned up, especially couples with children, to celebrate the holiday. While the adults prayed, the children made paper s'vivon (spinning tops) out of paper and stickers. After prayers, everyone lit the candles in the chanukiyot. Then there was a magic show featuring two Japanese men who did various card tricks, juggling, and the like, for the children's entertainment. There was also dinner, but I returned home before dinner because I didn't know there would be food so I told my host mother I'd eat at home. However, I did get to eat a sufganiyah, or jelly donut, a traditional Chanukah food. Anyway, it was interesting to meet new people at the synagogue, people who don't usually show up for Shabbat services. I don't know how many of them I'll see again soon, though, because the next time a big crowd will come will be for Passover in March.

Celebrating my Birthday in Japan

Last week I enjoyed celebrating my birthday here in Japan. I received a lot of cards in the mail from my friends and family back at home, which I was really happy about. Thank you for thinking of me from so far away!!!

In the morning I received a birthday card from the Konan University staff members who work in the Konan International Exchange Center. It was a big surprise for me, but they all took the time to sign their names and write their own personal messages. I also received a cute card from my friend Yuri. It's a popular thing to do here, to give a friend a picture of the two of you with a message written on the back for the friend's birthday.

After class Shoji took me to a restaurant called Sweets Paradise. It's an all-you-can-eat place, with a separate food buffet and dessert buffet. I ate so many different types of cakes there, maybe a little too much, because my stomach hurt a little bit afterward.

But my stomach didn't have much time to recuperate from all the cake because I was home by seven to enjoy a special hand-made sushi dinner that my host mom prepared for me at my request. She also baked me a vanilla cake, my favorite.

I ended the evening with a night on the town with a few fellow foreign exchange students. I had a wonderful birthday here in Japan!

Field Trip to Konan University's Second Campus

Last Friday my Japan Studies "Culture and Education" class took a field trip to Konan University's second and newest campus. The main Konan University campus is in the Okamoto area of Kobe, but this campus is in the Nishinomiya area, near Osaka. The campus itself is one building with nine floors. The campus was built within the past few years, and this is the first year that classes have been offered on the campus. The campus is also called "Cube Campus." It's an interesting name, because the architecture of the building is very modern, and much of the interior design seems to be cube-shaped or designed using modern-style architectural inspiration. This new campus is devoted specifically to business management, so the building is home to the "Hirao School of Managament," and students who wish to major in business management take classes here. Since this is the first year that the campus is in operation, the student body is very small, and I only saw about 100 or so students during my visit. However, the building is expected to hold about 800 students in three years.

During the field trip we had a "high tea," which to me was more like a casual party with food and drinks, and it was a chance for us to socialize with the Cube Campus students. My Japan Studies class teacher wanted some entertainment, so he asked me to bring my violin, and I performed a short solo as well as a duet with a fellow exchange student who plays guitar. My professor also gave me music that was selected by a professor at Cube Campus named Professor Ohta, who plays cello. Professor Ohta started playing cello six years ago, so he worked very hard on this duet, and it was his first performance ever. He is a physicist and very easy to talk with. We had a little rehearsal time together while the other students were touring the campus, and then we had a successful performance during the "high tea."

Kobe City Memorial Luminaries

This past Thursday and Friday I went two times to see a light show in Sannomiya, the downtown center of Kobe City. There are two blocks allocated for overhead lights, and huge arches are constructed with thousands of tiny, colored light bulbs that are lit up in beautiful patterns. Then, at the end of the two blocks, there is a park, and in the park there is another area set aside with one giant light display composed of more colorful designs. There is no special holiday theme for these lights, so it took a while for me to figure out why this brilliant light display occurs in Kobe each December.

The luminaries are set up in remembrance of the Great Hanshin Earthquake that struck Kobe in January, 1995. I do not know why the light display is held in December as opposed to January, but it is an annual event that started maybe ten years ago to mark the passing of each year since the deadly earthquake. I believe that Okaasan recently told me that the light show is second only to the Snow Festival held in Hokkaido each year in terms of popularity of seasonal events, and many people from all over Japan come to see the light show each year.

The light show uses a lot of electricity, so according to my Japanese friends, each year the show becomes smaller and smaller. In the past, the Kobe municipality has thought about discontinuing the light display, but protests from citizens across the country have stopped the municipality from ending the tradition and have kept the light show going. It's also free for the public, so it's hard on the city to fund all the electricity needed to display the lights. Therefore, the local government asks for a one hundred yen donation from each person who comes to see the lights.

The Orthodontist's Office: Japanese-style

I had an unfortunate experience with my retainer cracking while I'm here in Japan, so I had to make a trip to the orthodontist's office today to see if they could make me a new retainer. Braces and retainers aren't as high of priorities here in Japan as they are in the U.S., so my host mom warned me to not be surprised if the orthodontist was not able to fashion a new bottom retainer.

I entered the office and, just like in a house, there was an entryway area with a lower floor than that of the rest of the office. I had to remove my shoes, and then I pressed a button on this machine next to the doorway, and slippers came out from the bottom of the machine. I left my pink Converse sneakers in the entryway and put on the slippers, then I entered the waiting area. I didn't have to fill out nearly as much paperwork as I normally do at the orthodontist's office in the U.S., and the wait wasn't nearly as long.

Aside from the slipper-ejecting machine, I was shocked at what I found beyond the waiting room in the actual service area. The area where the orthodontist works on patients' teeth is smaller than the typical areas I've seen in the U.S., yet it has the same number of chairs, so four patients could be treated at the same time. I was shocked to see a television with movies playing in front of each patient's chair. One could simply sit down and watch a movie while the dentist or orthodontist works away. Maybe that's why this service I received today costs twice as much as what it does in the U.S... No personal television screens in the U.S...

I was able to complete the entire appointment using Japanese only with a little assistance from my host mom. I was relieved to find out that it would be possible for them to make me a new retainer, and it will be ready in a few weeks.

On my way out of the office, I set the slippers I had worn on top of the slipper machine, and they fell through the slots in the top of the machine and joined the pile of slippers inside the machine. I thought that machine to be an unusual, yet uniquely Japanese piece of technology.

Return to Synagogue

I was in the mood to attend Friday night services at synagogue, so I made my way over this past Friday. Shabbat evening services begin at 6:15, which is earlier than what I'm used to, but they still begin after sundown as opposed to beforehand, which is not what I would expect at a synagogue with more a more observant congregation. I sat in the women's section, as usual, but I was the only woman sitting there. There were only about fifteen men praying, just barely a minyan, and there were barely any women at the synagogue at all, much less anyone praying. I wanted to pray, but I couldn't because the prayers were Sephardi prayers, and the service is almost entirely in Hebrew. I can't follow along in the prayer book because they pray very quickly, and they may jump around, so I just sit and listen to the prayers, wishing that I could join in. The visiting rabbi who comes every Shabbat to help lead services has a very kind wife named Yonah, and she talked with me this past week during the services in between praying and taking care of her child. I also met another kind woman named Root (Ruth in Hebrew), and I sat next to her and spoke with her a lot during Shabbat dinner. Both Yonah and Root are Japanese women who married Jewish men and converted to Judaism.

After services I was allowed to eat dinner with everyone. It is difficult to obtain kosher meat in Japan, so for the meat course everyone ate fish. I spoke in both Hebrew and Japanese with one of the men in the congregation a little during dinner. I found out that most of the men at that congregation are Israelis who come to Japan to work overseas for their Israeli companies. Some of the men start dating and eventually marry Japanese women, some of whom convert and become Modern Orthodox Jews. The men of course miss Israel and want to return, but if they do, what would become of the congregation here in Kobe?

"Rakugo"

Last Sunday I went to a rakugo performance. Rakugo is comedic story telling, so there was a lot of laughter coming from the audience. The explanation was supposed to be geared toward exchange students and done in English, but the story teller, who had spent much time abroad, ended up giving most of the presentation in Japanese, probably because there were more Japanese people present than there were exchange students. He also had a heavy Japanese accent despite all the time he spent studying and working abroad, yet he could definitely communicate his ideas rapidly and in grammatically correct English. I didn't catch many of his stories and jokes at the beginning of his presentation because they were in Japanese, but I heard him mention some mishaps that occurred while he was traveling, including one that involved his shamisen (traditional Japanese instrument) case being mistaken for a rifle case.

Rakugo performers are also known for using props, such as a fan or a handkerchief, to assist in their presentations. This story teller used both a fan and a handkerchief, although he used the handerchief more frequently to wipe the sweat from his brow as opposed to using it as a prop for his stories, but he was still very funny, and he joked about how sweaty he became while performing (but since I was sitting in the front row, I could already tell quite clearly). He was also talented when it came to making sound effects, so as he used his fan as chopsticks, he made very realistic slurping sounds to imitate eating noodles. My previous belief was rakugo performances would be composed of jokes based on history or old-fashioned Japanese theatre, so without background knowledge I would not be able to understand much of a rakugo performance. However, this story teller joked about modern-day events that the audience could easily relate to, so I laughed a lot.