Kiyomi's Answers To Your Questions About Japan

• 08/10/2008 - 00:00
• Author: Yuki Sakuma
• Japan
• 0 Comments
• Read in IT

Here you have the first answers to the questions you made to our Kiyomi! Stay tuned because we will post the other answers too! Let's go!

    

Question of Sky_Shindou :  What kinds of festivals are there during the year?

There are al lot of festivals in Japan and some of them are only of a specific area of the country.
Here are the most famous.

1st of January - New Year's Eve "Oshogatsu"
It is the most important festival of Japan, if you meet somebody you know on this day you greet him/her saying "Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!!" "Happy New Year!!"

11th of February - Foundation Day "Kenkokukinenbi"
National Holiday for the foundation of Japan by the first Japanese emperor Jinmu

14th of February - Saint Valentine's Day  "BARENTAIN DEI"

It became famous in the last 30 years, on this day girls give chocolate to the boy they are in love with to confess their feelings.
Boys may recieve 2 different kinds of chocolate:
1) Honmei Choko is the chocolate a girl gives the boy she is in love with. It is a very expensive and elaborated chocolate, or hand-made one and it has a letter with a love message.
2) Giri Choko on the contrary is given as a sign of friendship because it is always nice to recieve a lot of chocolate from different people on that day. It is given to friends, collegues, etc.

3rd of March - Hinamatasuri (festival of dolls)
We already presented this festival to you in an article written by Inuchan. During this day a series of dolls are arranged in a sort of staircase. The higher the staircase, the wealthier the family. During this month there are also the graduation ceremonies of the schools.

1st of April
Also in Japan there is the "April Fools" we all know. During this month there is also "Hanami" the festival of the cherry trees bloom. Japanese families in this period use to have picnics under the cherry trees to admire the flowers.


Image by Altus

5th of May  Kodomo no Hi - Childern's Day.
As for the festival of dolls, this is a day dedicated to children, in the old days it was called "Tango no Sekku". If you want to know something more about it have a look at Inuchan's article.

7th of July - Tanabata Festival
On this day people write their wishes on paper stripes, hung them on bamboo trees to decorate it, and it is said that these wishes will come true.


Image by buck82

13th ~ 15th of August - Obon Matsuri.
It is a Buddhist festival to commemorate the ancestors, that are believed to come back in a spirit form every year during this period to visit their living relatives.
Lanterns are arranged near the houses, to guide the spirit towards the building. "Bon Odori" is a traditional dance danced during the festival, people visit the graves of their relatives and make food offers to them. At the end of the festival, lanterns are set afloat in a river, lake or the sea, to allow the spirit of the ancestors to go back to their place. This is one of the favourite festivals by Japanese people.


Image by seahorsetamer

September
On this month begin the period of the autumn festivals in Japan, each region has a different festival for its own gods.

October
There was no Halloween night in Japan, but recently, due tu the influence of foreign cultures, you could see masked people going around the cities during this day, most of them non-Japanese.

25th of December - Christmas!
During this day children wait for Santa Claus' arrival, and his presents!

Question of Ryuichi: At what age do children start to learn hiragana alphabet?

In Japan children begin to learn hiragana around 5/6 years old, in the first year of elementary school. But parents usually start to teach the children when they are around 2/3 years old. Infact when they start to attend the nursery school at 4/5 years old, they are already able to write their own name.
Anyway there are a lot of differences between children, some of them are already albe to write the entire hiragana alphabet before the beginning of the elementary school.

The answers have been translated and adapted to make them easier to understand.

If you can understand Japanese you colud read the original ones here.

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一般的��を。　　1月1日�正月��。誰も�知��る人�会��「������������������挨拶���。
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�盛ん��。Believe it or not, in Japan, that day iid a day when girls give chocolates to boys and confess their love to them.
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���。　7月7日�「七夕�　People write their wishes on colorful strips of papers and tie them to bamboo trees to decorate them.
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�国際化�進ん�仮装��る人も見��るよ���り���。�も外国�方�多�都会����。　12月25日����Christmasを楽����。
幼���サンタ�ん（Santa Claus）�訪れる�を　心待�������:)
_________________________________________________________________

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�学校�勉強�る��　��ん�����ら���書�るよ�����る�����。

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