Updates! 更新

Check out the updated 2010 Trip Diary page (the tab is at the top of this homepage) for translations of reports written by last year's Ikata student delegation.

昨年の派遣団に書かれた報告書を英語に訳し、２０１０年 Trip Diary というページに載せました。見るためには、このホームページの上にある水色のタブをクリックしてください。

お伊勢踊り奉納 The O-Isei Odori: A Ritual Dance

On January 14th and 15th, in the neighborhood of Misaki's Hachiman Shrine, a small group of men came together to perform a ritual dance called O-Isei Odori. Why? According to traditional Japanese belief, depending on whether you are male or female, certain years are unlucky for you. For women, these are 19 and 33 (with 33 being the most well-known), and for men, they are 25, 42, and 61 (with 42 being the most well-known). Different neighborhoods deal with the problem of unlucky years, called yakudoshi, in different ways.

For believers in yakudoshi who live in the neighborhood of the Hachiman Shrine in Misaki, this dance and its hymn--sung and accompanied by the taiko drum-- serve to expunge a year's worth of bad luck for 42 year-old men.

While it is uncertain exactly how many years this O-Isei ritual has been performed, it is believed to have been in practice since the middle of the Edo period (1603-1868), making it at least 300 years old.

成人の日 Coming of Age Day

This year on Monday, January 10th, a crowd of young people filled the large multipurpose hall at Ikata's Lifelong Learning Center. They had at least one thing in common: between April 2009 and March 31st, 2010, they all had or will have their 20th birthday.

The second Monday of every January is designated as "Coming of Age Day," when new 20 year-olds are invited to assemble at the local municipal office, where, in Ikata's case, Mayor Yamashita and other officials gave speeches about the importance of becoming an adult.

(As opposed to 21 in America, in Japan, 20 is the legal age of "majority.")

Congratulations, new adults!

You can read more about Coming of Age Day on Wikipedia.

Happy New Year!

皆さん、あけましておめでとうございます！

今年もよろしくお願い申し上げます。

New Year's Decorations

It's all about pine, bamboo, and a fresh new year.

Kadomatsu are arrangements of pine and bamboo placed on either side of entryways in Japan to welcome the gods of the new year. Read more about them on Wikipedia.

The other day, I decided to walk around Ikata's Minatoura neighborhood and see how many kadomatsu I could spot outside. They were at the town hall, of course, and the community center, the learning center, the office next to the town hall, and the local Yawata shrine. In these and other places which did not have kadomatsu, there were also twisted straw wreaths in a variety of styles hung over doorways, on door handles, and even on the grills of cars. These are all called shimenawa, and you can read more about them here.

Let's take a virtual walk together!

the town hall

the community center

the learning center

the shrine

a temple

the offices next to the town hall

Tsuwabuki-so

shimenawa over the door of a fish shop

shimenawa next to the door of a doctor's office

shimenawa on cars

Christmas Illumination

On Monday, December 6th at 6pm, children from Ikata's Minatoura neighborhood thronged around Tsuwabuki-so, a nursing home, for the annual Christmas Illumination ceremony. Some of Tsuwabuki-so's residents were wheeled out to watch the proceedings, too: after some festive words from the organizers, three switches were thrown to light up Tsuwabuki-so itself, a small park across the street, and the Yonden electric company apartments across the canal.

A group of people from the town hall and the weekly English conversation class sang "O, How a Rose E'er Blooming" in four-part harmony!

Tsuwabuki-so

The park across the street.

Merry Christmas!

Culture Day

November 3rd is not Election Day in Japan. It's Culture Day, or bunka no hi.

Schools and community centers host large get-togethers, where people showcase their talents in traditional Japanese crafts, dance, music, and paintings of the neighborhood. Local groups run concession stands to help support their activities.

The Ikata international association also runs a booth to allow kids to learn about the rest of the world through two or three international culture activities. In 2009 and 2010, they learned about Western calligraphy and wrote their names to make personalized bookmarks, played a flag and photo-based "Where in the World?" game, and took a swing at some piñatas.