Japanese Cuture

Japan has one of the interesting cultures all over the world. There are a lot of cultural things for example, New Year’s Day, Setubun, Tanabata, temples, and so on. In these ones, I would like to introduce Setubun, New Year’s Day, and temples.These days, Setubun was held on February 3rd. We throw beans saying, “Oni-ha-soto, Fuku-ha-uti.” And then we eat beans and Ehoumaki standing toward the direction that is decided each year. We eat beans the number of our own age plus one. In this connection, the direction of this year is the east-northeast. Setubun was one of the Imperial Court events in Heian era. Since Edo era, people came to throw beans and eat Ehoumaki like now. However, the purpose of this event which is to take away evil spirits doesn’t change since Heian era. Ehoumaki was thought between Edo and Meiji era by merchants in Osaka who desire prosperity of their business. The reason that we eat beans the number of our own age plus one comes from that people thought eating beans make us strong. In this event we can throw beans and eat a large Ehoumaki so I think children like it very much. I also like it because my mother allows me to throw beans with all my full strength like playing baseball.New Year’s Day is one of the most important days in Japan. On the day, when I get up in the morning, I rush to the mailbox in front of my house as soon as I can and take some New Year’s letter from my friends. This is one of the enjoyments in the day. The animal of the year is printed and some messages are written by my friends. It’s fun to read the messages. These days, someone sends e-mail as New Year’s letter but I think that it’s cheerless. In New Year’s Day, almost all the people in Japan eat festive food called “Osechi”. The contents in this food are decided and have their own means. Although people in Hokkaido eat it on December 31, I eat it on January 1 in Nagoya. The reason is that the night of December 31 was the beginning of January 1 in the lunar calendar in Meiji era. Another enjoyment of the day is “Otoshidama” which parents and relatives give the relative children some money. Some use them soon, other save them carefully. In this way, there are a lot of enjoyments in New Year’s Day so many children wait it impatiently.There are a lot of temples in Japan. Especially almost all of the temples were built in Kyoto or Nara. In these cities we can visit many world heritages for example Todai-ji, Kinkaku-ji, and Kiyomizudera. Todai-ji was built by the Emperor Shoumu in Nara in the first half of the eighth century. Why is this temple famous? It is easy to answer. The reason is that this temple has a very big statue of Buddha. Its height is about fifteen meters. Kinkaku-ji is one of the most famous sightseeing spots in Japan. I have visited there once. When I see its gold form, I could say nothing because of its beauty. This temple was burned two times but its Chinese phoenix at the top of the temple wasn’t burned both times. Kiyomizudera is famous for the high stage. We say that jump down from the stage of Kiyomizu when we do something difficult. In this way Japan has various temples and we can enter some buildings of them so I would like to visit Kyoto and Nara many time.Japan has many other cultural things. We Japanese even don’t know all of them. So I think we have to know more about it.