Japanese Holidays, Local Festivals and Events

Japanese Holidays

New Year's (Shogatsu)

One of the most important, if not THE most important, holidays on the Japanese calendar, New Year's is celebrated for days... both before and after January 1rst!!! The Japanese celebrate many "firsts" of the new year... among them, the first shrine visit, the first sunrise (Hatsu hinode), even the first calligraphy of the New Year (Kakizome)!!! Starting just before midnight, temple bells are rung 108 times (8 times in the old year and 100 times in the new), for the 108 sins of the Buddhist belief. New Year's postcards (Nengajo) are delivered by the billions, usually decorated with pictures of the animal representing the new year, according to the Chinese zodiac calendar. Families gather together and welcome the deity of the incoming year, (toshigami), with feasts of traditional foods including zoni, a soup containing mochi (the pounded rice traditionally served at the New Year). Traditionally, games were played, such as hanetsuki, a badminton-like game played with a paddle called a hagoita; nowdays, the hagoita are sold as decorative items... many of the traditional games are fading out of the popular culture. Children receive money in specially decorated envelopes (there are envelopes just for weddings, funerals, etc., too)... a typical child might receive the equivalent of about $250.

Local Festivals and Events

KINTAI BRIDGE FESTIVAL: As part of the annual Kintai Bridge Festival, there is a Daimyo and Young Warriors Procession, which is a costumed parade. On April 29th, 1997, our kids were lucky enough to be among the Americans allowed to join the local Japanese in this ceremony! Participants, dressed in traditional Japanese costumes (which it took several hours to get everyone arrayed in), walk in a VERY slow procession through the streets of Iwakuni, near the Kintai Bridge. It took about 2 hours to get to the bridge, at this pace. The procession then slowly crosses the bridge, which is closed to everyone else during the ceremony. The parade finishes in Kikko Park, on the castle side of the bridge. There was also an entire festival going on, with dancing, drumming, food, etc. which we missed while following our kids through the streets! This was a wonderful, once in a lifetime opportunity for them though! The next year we checked out the festival, and had a slightly better spot for taking photos!

FRIENDSHIP DAY: This is the open house day on MCAS Iwakuni. It's held on May 5, which is also the Japanese holiday of Children's Day (or Boy's Day, for traditionalists). It is also the last day in the Golden Week, which is a week that many Japanese take off work and celebrate the national holidays that fall at this time. The Japanese come from hours away, to see what this base is like. I've been to open houses at almost every base we've been stationed on, but I still wasn't prepared for the disruption that this Friendship Day wrought. I knew ahead of time that we would not be allowed to drive our car anywhere on the base (so we obviously couldn't drive it, to get OFF the base, either). I didn't find out until the day before, that we also couldn't ride our bikes, rollerblade or use any transportation other than our feet to get anywhere all day. You can't really leave ahead of time, to avoid this mess, because Golden Week and New Years are the two worst times to try to travel in Japan. Roads and hotels everywhere are crowded with those celebrating the holidays. So, you're basically stuck here, with the jets roaring over your head. In fact, they sound as if they're coming in one window of the house and exiting through another! In the spirit of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em", the kids and I went out our first year, to find out what all the fuss was about! Paul had a "normal" workday, so he wasn't with us.

I never did see what the fascination was! There were all the usual air show things... static displays of aircraft and vehicles, demonstrations of military maneuvers, etc. The Japanese answer to the Blue Angels, their Blue Impulse team, performed. There were bi-planes and C-130's, stunt jets and Harriers. Cool. Been there, seen that. What there was, more than anything else, was PEOPLE. So many people, that you couldn't see the static displays through all the people. A never-ending river of people, pouring in the main gate, and wending it's way to the flight line, where the river spread out into a sea of people. People in swarms; people in droves. I have never seen so many people at once, and I'm from So. California!!! All I wanted out of this day was a T-shirt. I didn't get one. Most of the booths had signs in Japanese; payment was in Yen. The lines were outrageous. And I didn't see a t-shirt for Friendship Day, anyway (lots of squadron t-shirts and West-Pac t-shirts, but I couldn't find one Friendship Day shirt). By the end of the day, I wasn't feeling very friendly, so I went home without a souvenir. I would say this is a day best avoided, altogether; I'll know better next year! (The next year I DID stay home... personally don't feel I missed much :-} The kids went and had a good time; they're much better in crowds than I am!)

INDEPENDENCE DAY (FOURTH OF JULY): Even though we are far from the Good Ol' U S of A, we are still proud and patriotic Americans! The 4th of July might not be a holiday outside the gates, but here on base, it's not too different than celebrating in the States. Most folks get the day off; the lucky ones might even get a 96 (a 4-day weekend off). Of course, some people have to work, as is true anywhere. Some people take off and go camping, and there are the usual picnics and parties. The commissary got watermelons in (limit of one per family)! The EOD shop, where Paul works, had a party with lots of good food, friends and great seats for the base fireworks show! This is a really good show- I was pleasantly surprised :-) It lasted about 45 minutes, and had some beautiful moments. The fireworks are set off from the end of the runway, over Penny Lake (which is more of a cesspool than a lake, but it looks nice in the dark, with fireworks reflected in it). We heard that we were lucky these past 2 years, though, that it wasn't raining on the 4th. Since Independence Day falls smack in the middle of the rainy season here, we have heard that the fireworks celebration has often been rained out in past years.

NISHIKI RIVER WATER FESTIVAL: Summer is a time for fireworks and Port and River Festivals, here in Japan. There are at least 10 such festivals held between July 19th and Aug 14th, in this area alone! Iwakuni's Port Festival is in July. The Nishiki River Festival is held the first Sunday in August, by the Kintai Bridge in Iwakuni. This was pretty much an all day event, starting at 10am, with a Treasure Hunt. There were booths set up all along the river bank, with food and souvenirs for sale. We purchased some yakitori, which is grilled meat on a bamboo skewer, and some corn-on-the-cob (also grilled on a skewer), with some softserve ice cream for dessert! It was all very good, although rather expensive- 1100 yen per person, or about $10, before we bought sodas to drink. Entertainment started in the evening; after a religious ceremony, there was a Brass Band, a Miss Iwakuni Beauty Pagent and a Japanese drum performance (Taiko). The fireworks show started at 8pm and lasted an hour-and-a-half!! I do like fireworks, but I could have happily watched 20 minutes of fireworks, and had the Taiko drumming last an hour-and-a-half!! This is quite possibly my favorite thing in the entire Japanese culture! The first time I ever saw this done was on "Reading Rainbow"; I was fascinated :-) I still love watching the drummers... it's visually exciting, and has a great sound as well. But, as active as they are, I can understand why the performance can't last long! By the way, our family rode our bikes from the base to the bridge; not a bad little ride... the roads are narrow, though, and were crowded with festival goers. On the way back, we took Route 2, because it's wider and has a bike lane (it was dark by then, and even though we had lights on the bikes, we wanted to be as safe as possible).

Links to other sites on the Web

Schauwecker's Guide to Japan: Holidays You could spend days checking out this entire site :-) This one page covers most holidays, and has links to more info about some!
Annual Cultural Events in Japan from the Japan National Tourist Organization; covers a full year of festivals all around the country
Annual Events at Miyajima Island Seasonal festivals & events, on Miyajima Island and at Itsukushima Shrine
Natural Features and Festivals in Hiroshima 14 Aug 02 Short explanations and photos of 10 local festivals during the year
Festivals and Events 14 Aug 02 local Yamaguchi area festivals described, with photos
Matsuri! Let's Celebrate 14 Aug 02 Matsuri is the Japanese word for festival; this page is aimed at DODDS teachers, and details a project to teach American students about the Japan they are living in! It is included here, primarily because of the list of Internet Resources... great links for cultural info!

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