＃January – Little Japan Dictionary

22nd January – 睦月

正月遊び　（Shougatsu-Asobi）No.3 かるた　（Karuta） Karuta was originally came from Portugal, in Azuchimomoyama Era, one ship came to Japan and introduce the game called ‘ウンスンかるた(Unsun Karuta)’. Carta means ‘card’ in Portuguese. This game was popular among the nobility in Heian Era – was called 貝合わせ (Kai-awase) using the shells. Each shells were painted and written poetry, finding theContinue reading “22nd January – 睦月”

21st January – 睦月

正月遊び　（Shougatsu-Asobi）No. 2 福笑い　 (Fukuwarai) Since Meiji period, it has been played, Fuku means happy, Warai stands for laugh in Japanese. Blindfolding one person and placing the face parts without looking. Eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth… As people guess the position but it hardly be placed where it should. Because the face looks funny, it makeContinue reading “21st January – 睦月”

17th January – 睦月

松竹梅　（Shou-Chiku-Bai) Pine tree, bamboo and plum – the lucky symbols in Japan Have you ever seen those symbols in Japan? Probably you have! Not only for celebration, many shops such as Soba shops, Sushi shops use shou-chiku-bai to categorise memu. All 3 symbols are equally fortunate but in order to make difference in menu, shopsContinue reading “17th January – 睦月”

12th January – 睦月

雪　Yuki　（Snow） In the winter time, some of the prefectures have snow falling in Japan. It creates magical scenery to the normal sites and brings a lot tourists in the snowing area. One of the most famous sites can be in Nagano, the hot spring where you can see the monkey taking a bath – calledContinue reading “12th January – 睦月”

10th January – 睦月

鏡開き　Kagami-biraki Breaking the Oshougatsu decoration rice cake (Kagami-mochi) and eating it on 11th January. Do you still remember the Kagami-mochi from the first blog? As it is already explained, Kagami-mochi is believed to have the soul of god inside and eating it will bring the god into the body. When Oshougatsu comes close to theContinue reading “10th January – 睦月”

7th January – 睦月

七草がゆ　Nanakusa-Gayu Japanese eat porridge with 7 different types of grasses in the morning on 7th January. Those 7 grasses bloom first in the spring and are believed to protect people from evils. It’s good to eat this porridge around this time because people had eaten a lot oshougatsu food. People’s stomach must had been very tiredContinue reading “7th January – 睦月”