Slow Bullets: A blog site by novelist John Rachel: Japanese holidays

Showing posts with label Japanese holidays. Show all posts

Thursday, August 8, 2024

LIVE FROM JAPAN! Revisited Redux

I again want to send some love to the wonderful fans of LIVE FROM JAPAN!

My my how time flies! LIVE FROM JAPAN! was published end of January, 2021. I sent the first shot of love here to the fans of the book June 2023. Then, as now, I let everyone know that the saga continues, as I regularly post articles on new happenings and my evolving perspective on life here as an American expat.

While I believe my understanding of and appreciation for the customs and people of Japan is always growing in depth and subtlety, one thing has not changed: I love living here!

There’s no simple explanation for this. All I can suggest is read my book, then read the articles that have subsequently appeared. Judge for yourself..

Here is the entire list of “living in Japan” essays that have appeared on this website, to date:

All of those were written after this splendid book got published. My way of keeping you up to date and hopefully dazzled and delighted.

If you don’t have a copy, you have no idea what you’re missing. Time to remedy that. You can order it from your local book store or visit one of these sites:

An Apple iBOOK is available HERE.

A B&N Nook Book is available HERE.

Other popular ebook formats are available HERE.

A deluxe full-color paperback from the printer HERE.

A deluxe paperback is available from Amazon HERE.

A deluxe full-color paperback is available from B&N HERE.

ENJOY!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

LIVE FROM JAPAN! Revisited Redux | John Rachel

Friday, June 16, 2023

LIVE FROM JAPAN! Revisited

I want to send some love to the wonderful fans of LIVE FROM JAPAN!

First, I thank all of you for the enormous outpouring of praise for my book. All 5-star reviews at Barnes & Noble. Fifteen 5-star reviews at Amazon. More satisfying than charts and book sales is knowing that people truly enjoyed the book. That’s the main and certainly most important reason for writing it in the first place.

Beyond my heartfelt gratitude, I want to remind everyone who has an interest in learning about the “real Japan”, that my sharing my unique life and experiences did not end with writing LIVE FROM JAPAN!

Since it was published in February 2021, I’ve continued to write articles and post them here at this website. Like the book, it’s a mixed bag of anecdotes about both life in my traditional rural town, and stories of travel and news from other parts of Japan.

I’ll make this very easy. Here is a list of all the articles to date, starting with the most recent:

All of those were written after this splendid book got published. My way of keeping you up to date and hopefully dazzled and delighted.

If you don’t have it and want the experience of holding it in your hands, here are the links:

An Apple iBOOK is available HERE.

A B&N Nook Book is available HERE.

Other popular ebook formats are available HERE.

A deluxe full-color paperback from the printer HERE.

A deluxe paperback is available from Amazon HERE.

A deluxe full-color paperback is available from B&N HERE.

ENJOY!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

LIVE FROM JAPAN! Revisited | John Rachel

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Life In Japan: Children’s Day

Japanese people work very hard. Long hours are the norm. At the same time, they are not averse to taking some time off to spend with family and friends. There are two extended holiday breaks, one in spring called Golden Week [ゴールデンウィーク] another at the end of summer called Obon [お盆].

Then there are the single-day holidays, fifteen in all.

I’ve written about these official holidays here in Japan before. Nothing military EVER! They celebrate everything from old people to mountains to nature to culture to the sun and ocean and the equinoxes.

The official holiday in May coincides with Golden Week. I’m referring to Children’s Day.

A holiday to celebrate children? Well . . . kids are the future. And they’re so darn cute!

I won’t attempt to offer a rationale for Children’s Day. It’s cultural thing, one that wouldn’t hurt the West to emulate. Of course, Anglo-Euro-America conjoined with the Land Down Under and that other place where they filmed Lord of the Rings, has Christmas, an orgy of excessive spending and myths about a virgin birth, a fat old man on a reindeer-powered UFO, and the health benefits of chemical and antibiotic-laced turkey or ham.

Trust me. There is no equivalency.

Just watch the below video and enjoy!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Children’s Day | John Rachel

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Life In Japan: Rice Cakes

Rice cakes are edible hockey pucks which very popular here in Japan. Not surprisingly they are made out of rice.

Actually, the hockey puck allusion is misleading. Only the biggest rice cakes are that bulky. More commonly, a rice cake will comfortably fit in the palm of a hand.

As to the similarity in taste, I wouldn’t know. While I’ve been hit in the face with a hockey puck, I’ve never tried to eat one.

One similarity is how hard a rice cake is . . . at least until it’s cooked. When a rice cake is subjected to heat, it basically melts, or swells up and melts.

Here is the same rice cake, after I baked it in an electric oven for about ten minutes. However a rice cake is cooked, it ends up GOOEY. Really gooey! Making it extremely fun to eat! My lovely wife, who just happens to be a genius in the kitchen, makes sweet red bean soup. The highlight is dropping in two rice cakes, which melt, thus every bite is covered in the delicious sweet sticky soup. It’s indescribably delicious!

It’s also impossible to describe the flavor of a rice cake by itself. Because basically there is none. If the outside is scorched by being in a fire or subjected to a blowtorch, the crust tastes like carbon or charcoal or incinerated newspaper. The true joy of eating a rice cake comes from what it’s immersed in, and just as importantly, it’s unique texture. Refer back to ‘gooey’.

Mind you, this whole article is about the simple, plain, white rice cake. I believe in starting with the basics. But the fact is there are more varieties of rice cakes than there are donuts at Krispy Kreme. Every color in the spectrum, too many flavors and variations to mention.

Before I forget, as it says in the top left panel above, the Japanese call a rice cake ‘mochi’ or ‘o-mochi’ — おもち. (‘O’ is often added as a prefix to show respect or reverence.)

Now at the risk of repeating myself, I’ll repeat myself by referencing an annual celebration in which the rice cake plays a feature role. Tondo Matsuri! Yes, it’s a wonderful occasion, saying farewell to the old year, welcoming the new. As I said a year ago, it’s a very laid-back affair. Here it’s just neighbors stamping their feet to stay warm, enjoying the warmth of a fire, lots of friendly smiles, and of course, gooey and chewy 餅 to launch us into 2022.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Rice Cakes | John Rachel

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Life In Japan: Respect for the Aged Day

*I know it looks like I’ve already been hitting the sake, but I hadn’t opened it yet. It’s just that I’m very old.*

I’ve written before about the uniquely wonderful national holidays Japan celebrates. It’s also talked about in my book LIVE FROM JAPAN!

This past Monday was 敬老の日, Keirō no Hi, Respect for the Aged Day here, my wife had the day off from teaching, and we had a barbecue celebration with her mother (definitely an aged person) and her older daughters. It was a splendid little party in the pergola I built a couple years ago.

Just before our festivities got fully rolling, I got a visit from one of my neighbors. The word had reached the highest government institutions. John Rachel turned 75 this summer, making me an official member of the “aged”. Not to diminish the prestige or importance of reaching this chronological benchmark, it’s not really a very exclusive club. People live very long lives here, and Japan this year recorded more people age 100 or above than ever in its history.

In any case, my neighbor brought with him gifts, those in the photo at the top.

The box of treats, including crackers and tea, was from the greater Tambasasayama area community. The bottle of expensive sake was from the mayor! He even wrote a letter of congratulations.

I suspect that this lovely gift-giving gesture was probably just a practice of my home town and other similar ones, modest size cities with more cohesion and sociability, and not the norm in the big cities.

But what a great touch on top of having a whole national holiday dedicated to us old folks!

And what a great way to make an “outsider” like me feel welcome in this charming and always amazing country, full of heart and adventure.

Finally, I have to draw attention to one of the treats.

*My wife, Masumi, says these are really yummy!*

Here is the rough translation of the messages on the package.

Life begins at 70.

When the angel comes for you at 70, tell him you’re not home.

When the angel comes for you at 80, tell him it’s too early.

When the angel comes for you at 90, tell him you’re not in a hurry.

When the angel comes for you at 100, tell him when the time comes you’ll be there.

Hmm. I assume the angel(s) speak Japanese. I think I better get cracking and make sure I’m up to speed with my command of the language!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Respect for the Aged Day | John Rachel

Sunday, February 14, 2021

The Book: “LIVE FROM JAPAN!” | John Rachel

Those of you who’ve been following my writing here know how enamored I am with Japan, how refreshingly different I find it, how Japan continues to this day to surprise me, how I often refer to my life here as “living in a fairy tale”.

Finally, my deluxe, full-color, large-format book about Japan, as viewed through my American expat eyes, is arriving February 14th (yes, that’s Valentine’s Day).

With over 450 color photos, it’s an expensive volume, coming in at $35.95 in print, normally $9.99 as an ebook.

BUT for the next two weeks, the ebook of LIVE FROM JAPAN! is available as a pre-order in every popular ebook format FOR ONLY . . .

$2.99!

I want everyone to have this book. It offers a side of Japan they will never get anywhere else, and unless they come here and stay with me for a few days, are unlikely to experience themselves as a tourist.

Please think about it.

If it feels right . . .

DO IT!

The Kindle version can be pre-ordered HERE.

An Apple iBOOK can be pre-ordered HERE.

A B&N Nook Book can be pre-ordered HERE.

Other popular ebook formats can be pre-ordered HERE.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

The Book: “LIVE FROM JAPAN!” | John Rachel