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Japanese Customs and Superstitions
-- It is a tradition in Japan for the professor to greet his or her students before class begins and for the students to respond in kind. "Kiritsu! Rei!" is a parting routine in Japanese schools where all students stand and bow to the teacher at the same time at the beginning and end of class.
-- Japanese schooling is as follows: 6 years of elementary, 3 junior high, 3 senior high.
-- Students change their shoes before entering; there are different shoes for outside, inside, and gym.
-- In Japan, junior high goes from Grade 7 (First Year) to Grade 9 (Third Year). High school goes from Grade 10 (also called First Year) to Grade 12 (also called Third Year). In 9th grade, most students are around 14-15, and in 10th, they're 15-16. 9th Graders have to take high school entrance exams.
-- Generally, high school students are put into classes by either number-number [3-1] or number-letter [1-D]. The classes contain 25-35 students each, and they remain in the same class with the same classmates for all 3 years of school. For number-letter classes, the letter always stays the same, but the number changes depending on what year in high school the students are in [ie: 1-D is for freshmen, 2-D for second years, and 3-D for third]. In some schools/areas, the grades are written with only numbers. For example, if the student is in the third sophomore class [there are multiple classes for each grade], they would be in class 2.3 [year two, classroom three].
-- Students don't pick their own classes and move from class to class, except for gym. There is usually only one teacher per classroom, and a separate gym teacher.
-- Even in public schools, students usually wear uniforms [sailor skirts for girls, and black pants/jacket and a white shirt for boys].
-- Unlike the student council in America, members have a wider range of �jobs� [nurse�s assistant, clean-up, etc].
-- LHR stands for long homeroom class, which is just another course in a student's schedule.
-- There aren't cafeterias at Japanese schools. For lunch [a bento brought by each student; a boxed lunch], students either eat in their respected classrooms or go outside.
-- There aren�t lockers, so students put their bags onto hooks attached to the sides of their desks.
-- PE classes are separated into boys and girls. They all start together and have the same teacher(s), but they separate by gender to play different sports.
-- Students carry around a student handbook with them, kind of like a student ID, except this is also used as a planner or for quick notes-to-self. In the student handbook, it says what year they are in, has their picture, and personal information [blood type, etc].
-- In Japan, a ronin is a student who has graduated from middle school or high school but has failed to enter a school at the next level, and consequently is studying outside of the school system for entrance in a future year. The term "ronin" is colloquial; the word kanendosei is more formal. "Ronin" derives from their having no school to attend, as a ronin (a masterless samurai) had no leader to serve.
Street:
-- In Japan, there are vending machines practically every 100 feet.
-- It's hard to tell Japanese girls apart sometimes because they all have the same sorts of clothes and hairstyles [currently, the fashion is the backwards-layers, being short hair in the back and long in the front].
Home:
-- People in Japan keep shrines inside their homes for their deceased family members [usually a close member or ancestor, not distant relatives].
-- In Japan, people used to sleep on futons, which are low, soft mats on the floor, and although some still use them, many use Western beds now. When they don't use their futons, they fold them up and put them in a closet [basically].
-- The "toilet" and "bath" are separate rooms of the house, and there is no shower in either of the two, although sometimes baths have a sort of showerhead-like device to use.
-- Saying "I'm home!" is one half of the traditional greeting Japanese people use whenever anyone arrives back at the house. The person already in the house is supposed to say, �Okaeri nasai,� in response.
-- Japanese begin by soaping and scrubbing before entering the tub, where you will find a shower-like apparatus or a faucet and a wash tub; the bath, or ofuro, is used only for soaking. Do not put soap or bubble bath in the ofuro.
-- Wearing traditional clothes (ie a kimono, haori, yutaka, etc) on a daily basis is not necessarily strange.
Formalities:
-- You address someone by surname [complete with suffixes] and not their given name unless you know them really well.
-- It's common curtesy to remove your shoes before entering any house.
-- Bowing is a traditional form of greeting all throughout Asia, but can also say "sorry", "thanks", or "excuse me". The younger person should bow first.
-- When visting another's home, it's common curtesy to bring a gift.
-- There is a ritualized manner in which Japanese people enter and leave the rooms of their superiors. When you leave you bow slightly and say "thank you" or "please excuse me" (shitsurei shimasu) and then without fully turning your back on the person you make your way to the door and once there you back out, usually bowing again, and say, �Shitsurei shimasu� as you shut it.
-- Business cards are common: it's the way business spreads in general. You should receive a business card with both hands and bow subtly, yet graciously. Simply taking the card and putting it in your pocket or wallet is considered rude.
Eating:
-- Most Japanese desserts aren't sweet, but made out of bean paste.
-- Tipping, as in giving extra money to workers in shops and restraunts, is unacceptable.
-- Before eating, it is rude if you don't say "itadakimasu", and at the end, you say "gochisousama".
-- When drinking with friends, it's rude to pour your own glass unless you're with super-close friends; you take turns pouring each other's glass.
-- No matter how much you eat/drink, the bill is always split around evenly.
-- When finishing a meal, you must place your chopsticks across your dish or on the side, and never place your chopsticks in your bowl or standing up in your rice. This is done only at funerals, so to do it at any other time is considered disrespectful.
Superstitions/Phrases:
-- There's a Japanese superstition that if you whistle at night, burglers will come.
-- When hiding happiness, one�s under-nose area stretches, according to Japanese expressions (Under your nose! Under your nose!).
-- Japanese ghosts don�t have legs.
-- The Japanese phrase "demons with clubs" means "a double advantage".
-- Another superstition is that the number four is considered inauspicious because it is pronounced the same as the word for death (shi). Therefore, one should not make presents that consist of four pieces, etc. In some hotels and hospitals the room number four is skipped.
-- Yet another superstition in Japan is that if you like down after eating, you'll turn into a cow. (ehhh)
-- In Japan, they see a rabbit in the moon pounding mochi (pounded glutinous rice) instead of the man in the moon.
-- Giving food from chopstick to chopstick is another superstition/unlucky thing to do, since handing one thing to another in a similar manner is only done with bones of a cremated person's body.
-- A Japanese saying is that if you curse a person, there are 2 holes, meaning: if you dig someone�s graves trying to kill them by curse, you dig your own grave as well.
-- Some Japanese people believe soul mates are tied together by an invisible red string.
-- Kitsune [foxes] are known to be sneaky and possess magical abilities because in the Shinto religion, the kitsune is the messenger of the rice god.
-- Tengu, literally "heavenly dogs," are best known as youkai. In Japanese folk tales, they are stupid and easily tricked by humans. The tengu were often conceived of as the ghosts of the arrogant, and as a result the creatures have became strongly associated with vanity and pride. Today the Japanese expression "tengu ni naru" literally means, "he is turning into a tengu", and it is still used to describe a conceited person.
Calendar:
-- The Japanese considered hanabi (fireworks) as "flowers of fire". Since fireworks displays have become such popular events, it's common to see many people strolling in yukatas (cotton kimonos), drinking cold beer and carrying uchiwas (round-shaped fans) - everyone from the neighborhood usualy turns up for the festivity on muggy summer nights. In the past, firework performances were held as exclusive entertainment for the privileged class. After wining and dining on a boat, the daimyos and their lovely courtesans often watched fireworks hurled into air as they drifted along the Sumida River. Hence, shooting fireworks along a river has become a traditional practice. In fact, fireworks show over the Ryogoku Bridge on the Sumida River marks the opening ceremony of the boating season.
-- [continued from above] The Japanese fireworks fall mainly under three categories based on different scattering results: warimono, kowarimono, and pokamono. The warimono bursts into sizzling stars distributed in equal distance from the center to resemble petals of a chrysanthemum. The magnificence of this rupture stems from the diverse color coordination and smaller additional cores in the center of the firework bloom. Instead of one awesome floral blossom, the kowarimono ejects a multiple of tiny chrysanthemums blooms all at once. Unlike the floral shower, the pokamono splits into two hemispheres while in the air, casting stars in one direction as sparks fly erratically and part as traces of smoke. The ending of the shows are usually a magnificent sanjakudama, a single massive firework rising to the height of 600 meters with a spread of 650 meters across the sky.
-- Golden Week, also know as Ogata renkyu or Ogan shukan, is a Japanese term applied to the period containing the following public holidays: Greenery/Nature Day [midori no hi], Showa Day [showa no hi], Constitution Memorial Day [kenpo kinenbi], Children's/Boy's Day [kodomo no hi/tango no sekku], and May 4, which is called "kokumin no kyujitsu", which is a generic term for any official holiday [it is an official holiday because of a rule that converts any day between two holidays into a new holiday]. May Day is not a public holiday, but is nevertheless often granted as a holiday by many companies. When a public holiday lands on a Sunday, the next day that is not already a holiday becomes a holiday for that year. During Golden Week, most work places and school have the entire week off.
-- Currently in Japan, the months are known as "First month", "Second month", etc. But they all have many, many other names [some of which you can find in my Japanese Glossary]. They're based on the lunar calendar, so they don't necessarily match up with the months of the Western calendar. In addition to there being "the month of the Rat", "the month of the Ox", etc, the hours of the day were designated in the same way.
-- There are two gift seasons in Japan, called oseibo and chugen. One is for winter and the other is for summer. Gifts are given to those whom one has a relationship with, especially the people who have helped the gift giver.
-- Women give men chocolate on Valentine's Day. The chocolate can be given to the object of the woman's affection, or to any man the woman is connected to. The latter is called giri-choko (obligation chocolate). This custom is also performed by the male one month after Valentine's Day, called White Day.
-- Because most people in Japan are part of the Shinto religion, Christmas isn't commonly celebrated.
-- O-Bon is a holiday when Japanese people return to their hometowns to celebrate deceased ancestors and family members.
Tourists:
-- Foreigners (gaijin) are rarely seen in Japan; because of this, sometimes prejudice occurs, and some refuse to rent rooms to gaijin.
--In Japan, holiday-goers do not send postcards. Instead, the tradition in Japan is for a holiday goer to bring back a souvenir, often edible.
Hospitals:
-- When someone's in the hospital, it is common to bring a gift to someone staying in hospital such as flowers, but it can be considered bad luck to bring a potted plant.
-- When staying in a hospital, it is sometimes customary to provide a small gift for the doctor or nurses.
Funerals/Weddings [same thing? haha]:
-- If a relative of a person has died sometime in the year before the New Year, they will send a postcard written in black before the New Year apologizing for not sending a New Year's card.
-- At funerals, money is brought in a funeral enevlope, rather than flowers. For women who want to wear jewelery, wear pearls.
-- It is traditional for wedding guests to provide a gift in a stylized, sealed envelope. The money is understood to be used to cover the cost of the wedding and party. Depending on the group of people involved, people of higher status may be expected to give more, or there may be a decided amount. Wedding guests may also receive wedding gifts, in a kind of reverse-wedding registry situation. Near the wedding date guests may receive a catalog of gifts available for them to choose.
Games and Pop Culture:
-- Mito Koumon is a play about Takugawa Mitsukuni, a famous 17th century political leader and historian.
-- In �sentai� color-costumed superhero team TV shows, the actor in red is usually the biggest star.
-- Yamada Tarou is a live action. Yamada Hanako is a famous solo female comedian.
-- �The King who believes shall be saved. If you think it, it shall be! Go to Shibamata in Katsushika!� Shibamata is a neighborhood in the Katsushika district in Tokyo. These two lines appear to be an allusion to the Japanese film series �Otoko wa Tsurai yo�.
-- There is a game called �Hit! Wear hat! JanKenPan!� where two players do rock-paper-scissors. The winner of that uses a large paper fan to hit the loser on the head, who can put on a helmet before being hit.
-- In Naruto, the Uchiha symbol is the uchiwa fan, and it represents their power to stoke and spread flames.
Other:
-- The Sanzo River is like the River Styx, the river for the dead to cross over.
-- Letter-writing remains an important part of Japanese culture, despite the advent of email and text-messaging.
-- Personal letters are traditionally written by hand using blue or black ink, or with a writing brush and black ink. The preferred paper is washi (Japanese paper). Letters may be written vertically (tategaki) or horizontally (yokogaki), but vertical is the traditional, and therefore more formal, direction.
-- [oya-baka && ko-baka] In Japan, it is frowned upon to publically compliment members of your family or your own employees with them there, and it's usually very embarrassing for the person being complimented. The term "oya-baka" refers to a parent who foolishly goes on and on about their child's accomplishments, and "ko-baka" would be a child who goes on and on about their parent.
-- [InoShikaChou] There's a Japanese card game called "karuta", and it's a gambling game. InoShikaChou is a bonus move, and it consists of three cards: the boar [Ino], the deer [Shika], and the butterfly [Chou].
-- In Naruto, there are ANBU Black Ops. These are real ninja classes, and they are also called the Inferno Squad. A lot more information about these are on wikipedia and britannica.
-- In the Feudal Era in Inuyasha, Kaede's village is in the country called Musashi.
There are more I know, but I can't think of them at the moment...I'll post them when it comes to me.
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