Posts under Different culture’

As I wrote the previous post, March 3rd is Girl’s Festival (Hinamatsuri)  Japan.

Normally we display specific dolls (Hinaningyou) on a tiered stand. These specific dolls when a baby girl is born, her parents or grandparents buy the dolls. There are some meanings why we give the girl “Hinaningyou”.

I’ll tell you one of them which is the most important wish from the parents of the girl.

The dolls are believed to protect the girl from evil forever.

When I was a child, my mother cooked special dinner for “Hinamatsuri”. It’s called “Chirashizushi” . It’s kind of sushi but looks completely differents and the ingredients also! Few times I wore “Kimono”!!

My mother’s friend sent me a little “Hinaningyou” for me! If you want to see real “Hinaningyou”, please google!!

Normally “Hinaningyou” is consist of seven steps. We call it “Nana dan kazari”.

Today (Februrary 22nd) is “cat” day in Japan!!!! Do you know why? I’m sure you don’t understand or you think it’s absolutuly stupid.

Well, in Japan the sound of cats is “Nyan nyan nyan” . February in Japanese is “Nigatu and 22nd is Nijyu-ni.

That’s why today is “Cat day”.

Ok, maybe some people want to ask “Is there also “dog day” in a year?”

Yes!! Don’t worry we are not mean and like to be equal. Can you guess when it is?

The sound of dogs is “One one one”. So January 11th is “Dog day”.

Are there cat and dog’s days in your country??

As a Valentine present Stefan gave me a cute card, a bunch of tulips and Laduree Macaron!

Japanese Valentine’s day is different from European style. In Japan Feb. 14th women give chocolate to their lovers. ( Often give something additional such as wallet, tie and so on). And one month later Mar. 14th the men give something to the women as a return gift. Of course it depends on how thick their wallets are!

I always think Japanese people really love events. Compared with the events in Switzerland, Japan has much more… I think this is one of reasons why I miss Japan.

Ok, I’ll pick up some of them… (I don’t write about public holidays, Japanese public holidays are also crazy!)

• Jan. 1st  New Years
• Feb. 3rd “Setubun”
• Feb. 14th Valentine’s day
• Mar. 3rd Girls Festival
• Mar. 14th White day
• May. 5th Children’s day
• May. 2nd Sunday Mother’s day
• Jun. 2nd Sunday Father’s day
• Jul. 7th Star Festival
• Oct. 3st Halloween
• Dec. 16th Yuko’s Birthday (Oops! you don’t want to know do you?!)
• Dec. 24th and 25th Christmas
• Dec. 31st New Year’s Eve

Everybody knows Christmas is over. Yes! But still I sometimes see some television commercials about Christmas in Switzerland. Like a “This is a good present for christmas…”.

Today Stefan came back from a business trip in France and kindly he brought me a souvenir.

“Sooo cute!!” But immediately I realized that there is a little Santa hat on the top of the little Eiffel Tower.

The Christmas commercials on TV and the sweet. Maybe they are for Christmas in 2010 which means these things are 11 months in advance!!!

In Japan people clean their house very properly at the end of the year. We call it “O-souji” which means big cleaning.  Because we want celebrate the New Year in a clean house. When I told about this Stefan and Stefan’s mother, they said Swiss people do it in spring.

As I’m a Japanese I’ve done “O-souji” since I was a child. I can’t help doing “O-souji” so I started it 2 weeks ago and little by little I did it and now my house is completely (I hope!?) clean.

By the way generally I respect for the cleanliness of Swiss people’s houses. I don’t know why maybe compared to Japanese house, Swiss houses are simple and less tiny things.

And here people are very good at throwing away (sometimes throwing away means negative but this time it’s positive).

Of course not all Japanese people but some people who I know, they love to keep used things as a memory or they want to reuse in order to save precious resources. I also sometimes tend to do that…

But I found out that the cleanliness between Swiss and Japan is different. For example here many people don’t wash their hands and gargle when they get home. I never seen this in Japan. And in Japan when you go to restaurant in Japan, you get a small wet towel “Oshibori” to wipe your hands before eating. But many Swiss people clean their house properly! It’s very difficult to explain but when you stay in Japan and Swiss for few days you will notice the difference.

Anyway as far as I know Swiss people’s houses are very clean and I respect that!!

P.S My husband is getting like a Japanese so when he comes home, he immediately wash his hands and gargle!

And sometimes he says: “Yuko-chan you have to wash your hands and gargle! It’s important!!”

“Yes!! Sir”

(^o^)\

Note: The little cute guy in the photos. He is a “Kaminfeger”. Before New Year (After christmas) you can buy it at the flower shop or supermarkets. People say that when you touch him on the first day of the year, you can get luck. The translation of “Kaminfeger” is for the word “chimney cleaner”.

In Japan we don’t have this and England neither! I’m ready to touch him!!