18th May – 皐月 Following the yesterday’s blog お食い初め (Okuizome = the very first food that baby eats), today’s blog is also about babies’ events that is held for the first 1 months they are born. お七夜 (Oshichiya) The celebration feast event for the new born baby. It is held 7 days after baby isContinue reading “赤ちゃんのための行事 (Akachan no tame no Gyouji) – Events for babies”
Category Archives: Tradition
還暦祝い(Kanreki Iwai) – 60years old cerebration
16th May – 皐月 Japanese culture has special cerebration for turning point of years. One of the big cerebration can be 成人式 (Seijinshiki = 20years old) and 還暦祝い (Kanreki Iwai) for 60 years old. For 還暦祝い, traditionally people who turned 60 years old wear red hat and vest. However, nowadays, this custom is vanishing andContinue reading “還暦祝い(Kanreki Iwai) – 60years old cerebration”
ヨナ抜き音階 (Yonanuki Onkai) – Japanese musical scale
11th May – 皐月 Old Japanese music style has unique sounds that are very peculiar, this is because there is a Japanese musical scale exists. Older time before Western music spread in Japan, Japanese used to call the sound of Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti as ヒフミヨイムナ (Hi Fu Mi Yo I MuContinue reading “ヨナ抜き音階 (Yonanuki Onkai) – Japanese musical scale”
瓦 (Kawara) – Roof tile
10th May – 皐月 Roof tile which are made from clay. The view of Japanese towns is unique – mixture of modern and old buildings everywhere. When you see the rooftop of the houses, you can see the old houses have those fish scale-look roof tiles called 瓦 (Kawara). Kawara is baked very high temperature,Continue reading “瓦 (Kawara) – Roof tile”
漬物 (Tsukemono) – Japanese Pickles
8th May – 皐月 漬物 (Tsukemono)- mainly vegetable soaked in salt, vinegar or rice wine to make the veggies last longer. Making 漬物 is such an easy work so it is believed to have existed already 2000 years ago. At that time, people already knew how to extract salt from sea water. There are variousContinue reading “漬物 (Tsukemono) – Japanese Pickles”
日本食調味料 (Nihonshoku Choumiryou) -Japanese food seasoning
7th May –皐月 Japanese food have very unique tastes compared to the other countries. There is a specific words to explain Japanese basic seasoning – さしすせそ (Sa Shi Su Se So) yes, if you know the Japanese letters, you probably feel familiar to those word! Each letters explain main seasonings for 和食 (Washoku). さ forContinue reading “日本食調味料 (Nihonshoku Choumiryou) -Japanese food seasoning”
こどもの日 (Kodomo no Hi)
5th May – 皐月 Part of Golden week holiday, the day for children – Respecting the children’s individual characters, wishing for happiness for them and appreciating their mothers for bringing up the children. Some people might have heard that 5th of May is also called as 端午の節句 (Tango no Sekku). However, this is a differentContinue reading “こどもの日 (Kodomo no Hi)”
苗字 (Myouji) – Surname
4th May – 皐月 It is said that Japanese surname exists around 300,000 and there are very common ones to the rare one only 1 household owns. There are 3ways to say surname in Japanese: 苗字 (Myouji), 名字 (Myouji) and 姓(Sei). 苗字 was often used in Edo period, 苗 means seedlings so it has theContinue reading “苗字 (Myouji) – Surname”
招き猫 (Maneki Neko)
2nd May – 皐月 招き猫 (Manekineko) – The cat shaped ornaments with front hand up. Cats catch mice which harms crops and house. Thus, Cats were appreciated by people and 招き猫 has been considered as a lucky item. There are different shaped and various colored 招き猫. If the right hand is up, it is believedContinue reading “招き猫 (Maneki Neko)”
八十八夜 (Hachijuu Hachi Ya) -The Eighty Eight night
1st May – 皐月 88 days after 立春 (Risshun) is the day of starting summer. This year falls 1st of May. From around this day, there are less frost therefore it is considered as the starting day of farming. Now the day is becoming longer and longer, the temperature is getting above 20 degrees inContinue reading “八十八夜 (Hachijuu Hachi Ya) -The Eighty Eight night”
Little Japan Dictionary 