Tatami-----a prerequisite item for a Japanese house

(a tatami room with an alcove at a Japanese Inn;from a website)

Our house is a typical Japanese style.  That means most of our rooms are tatami rooms.  Tatami mats, if we take a good care of them, it lasts about 20 years or so. Recently one of our tatami rooms finally needed to be renewed.  The inner core of every tatami mat in the room got too soft although we'd had the tatami craftsman change the woven surface coverings of tatami over times by then.  We felt it while walking on them  that it was not a surface but a inner core that didn't function.

(a tatami craftsman renewed our 8-tatami room)

Tatami mats that cover a floor in a traditional Japanese room are something very unique and special that symbolizes the Japanese style of living. It has a long history over 1300 years. In Japan we take off our shoes at the entrance since we sit down on tatami mats in a Japanese style room.

(3 components of tatami mat)

Tatami is made up of three components: surface coverings known as tatami omote, inner bases called tatami doko, and edging borders, tatami beri.

Tatami coverings are made from a plant called “candle rush or “igusa” in Japanese. It’s a thin sheet of woven rush grass.  Tatami doko is a tightly packed pile of rice straw stacked in many layers until it is about 5 cm thick.　Getting these two components ready,　a tatami craftsman stitches a surface covering onto an inner base.  And finally edging borders made of woven cloth are sewn onto a body.  Tatami used to be handcrafted through all the process by skilled craftsmen. It is quite a hard labor so today machines help some part of these steps yet the quality can’t beat skilled craftsmen' s work.

(Nowadays a tatami craftsman use a machine, too)

There are very good reasons to spread tatami in a whole room.  Summer in Japan is very humid and hot.  We also have a damp rainy season just before summer starts. Flooring with tatami mats is ideal from an environmental viewpoint.  Tatami components are made of dried stalks.  A dried stalk has many air holes in it like a sponge and this allows air to come in and out. Good circulation helps to create a comfortable space.  Tatami mats also give a room a refreshing greenery smell.

(dried candle rush (igusa) and its stalk cutaway image)

By the way, the size of one tatami mat differs depending on the local region, but briefly speaking it is just as big as a western size single bed. It is very convenient in a way that we describe the size of a room using numbers of tatami such as a 6-tatami room or a 8-tatami room.  Suppose I say my house consists of two 6- tatami rooms, three-8-tatami rooms and one 10-tatami room, which is not true, though.  This makes easy for anyone to guess how large my house is. 

(a traditional guest room with an alcove)

Nowadays, Western style housing is more common in our daily lives. Yet we still have a Japanese style room with tatami in at least one or even two rooms of a modern house. 

I think Tatami is something special and important to identify ourselves as Japanese.

all the way from another world

I just walked back from our house grave in the temple with some lit incense sticks which I brought back from the grave altar.  It is believed that the souls of the ancestors come along with me, being guided by some lit incense and a small fire for welcoming at the house entrance.  

This is one of the biggest traditional Japanese Buddhist events to commemorate our ancestors' souls as well as those of all people in the past.  Now they are with us for three days to spend time with their descendants at their homestead. Welcome back.

Obon is the biggest traditional as well as religious event besides the New Year in Japan. We have about a week holiday during the Obon nationwide.  In general many young family living away from their parents  put themselves into hustles and bustles of packed trains with people and roads with cars in order to visit their houses they've grown up.  A happy family of several generations visit the house grave together to pay a respect to their ancestors. Definitely Obon makes it possible for many family members to get reunited to enjoy the holidays.  This way Japanese people are more likely to put an importance on a family unity.

Tomorrow our house monk is coming  to give a sutra for our ancestors in front of the house altar. Then the day after tomorrow,  they are ready to go back to their world of the dead riding on a egg plant cow or a cucumber horse which are standing by on the altar.

Our Obon has got underway just now.

Peace Declaration from Hiroshima

Hiroshima marked the 67th anniversary of the atomic bombing yesterday on August 6th.

Thousands of people from home and abroad gathered at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in the morning. The ceremony was on air on TV/radio. When a clock hit  8:15 sharp , an exact time the first atomic bomb in man's history was dropped onto the city  67 years ago,  the whole nation including people in the park as well as in front of TV sets stopped  to take  a moment of silence.

 (all images from a TV program)

In the ceremony, the mayor of Hiroshima annually gives his address for the worldwide peace and the elimination of nuclear weapons. We call it "Peace Declaration " and it is delivered to the whole world.  It gives us an opportunity to stop for a while to turn our thoughts to Hiroshima.  
We're going to have another memorial ceremony in Nagasaki on August 9th, the second a-bombed city. Finally on August 15th, we have the anniversary of the end of the war.  No more Hiroshima.  No more Nagasaki. 
For every Japanese, August is definitely time to think of everlasting peace on earth.

Here you will read "Peace Declaration" by the mayor of Hiroshima.  
You can get the language you want at the bottom of the page to read this. 
Also you will read the web news article here.

Engraved marks on the stone walls

I attended a workshop with other English speaking guides at Nagoya Castle for an ink impression on a wall stone. 

On many wall stones of Nagoya Castle, you see a number of interesting carved patterns.  It is a well-known fact that these prints represent the clans’ marks or samurai family crests.  A great number of people from each clan had joined the hard labor of transporting the huge stones to construct  the new castle.  

 In 1610 TOKUGAWA Ieyasu,  the founder of the Edo Shogunate ordered to build the Nagoya castle in this area.  Since the area was a flat land, collecting thousands of stones from distant areas was a hard work beyond our imagination. Of all his subordinates, 20 feudal lords were appointed to be in charge of constructing the castle. Their own home lands were away from the castle area.  In order to bring out the stones all the way out the mountain areas they traveled far long on rough roads, or some were by way of sea or river.  When they finally brought their stones at the castle site, they didn’t want to lose any of their stones in confusion with others from different clans. So they carved their marks on every stone to appeal their utmost contribution to the great mission.
　
By the way, Nagoya Castle was occasionally repaired during its long history of over 300 years until it was completely burnt down in an air raid  in 1945 at the end of  World War II. However many wall stones remained as they were  although some burned quite hard. The present main tower was reconstructed in 1959.

 

This way people today can feel and touch the predecessors’ resolution.

Considering the story behind these stone seals, it was a very interesting event to make a stone rubbing to a piece of Japanese paper.  I chose two marks, one was said to be from the Maeda clan, which was one of the influential feudal lords of those days. Another one was not known well as for its holder.

 

First I wetted the stone surface with a soaking cloth and put a sheet of Japanese paper onto a wet surface. Again I wetted a piece of paper on the wall until the engraved print came out to be clear. It was an interesting part of work to see that an engraved mark remained dry and other flat stone surface got wet. After leaving a few second to dry excessive water from a sheet of paper, I patted an ink and then peeled off a paper very carefully out from the stone surface. 

 

And here they are.  Aren’t they nice?  
 I’m going to make each of them into a nice hanging scroll to put it on the wall of our traditional alcove in the guest room with tatami mats. 

The hanging scroll in the last picture is from the tea house in Nagoya Castle site. 

For those who are interested in doing a stone rubbing at Nagoya Castle, I advice you should check the official website.  A summer session was over last month.

http://www.nagoyajo.city.nagoya.jp/02_events/24/240728/index.html

Sorry this is Japanese language only.  If you want to try out  this event, e-mail me so that I can inform you about the coming schedule if any.

Sweetest Guardian living downtown

Near the busy Nagoya station and  in between tall  business tower buildings, there is one small Buddhist temple called "Keihouin" 桂芳院  that you definitely love to visit when you need to have someone listen to your complaints.

This SOMEONE always welcome you by putting his right hand on his right ear so that he can listen to you very attentively.  He never stops you no matter how long you complain, what you nag at or  whom you accuse of.  He sits still outdoor in the corner of the temple ground with a small red apron on from his neck.  He is wearing a gentle smile with his eyes closed.  He is ready to listen to you anytime.   He even keeps a square stool for you to sit on. Urr, it is made of stone, though.

As a matter of fact,  he should not been defined as "he" but  he is friendly called "Ojizou-sama (o-ji-zo-u-sa-ma)."  A local guardian deity that helps us free from every bit of pains and sorrows of daily human relationships.

See, we all know that keeping our complaints inside us is not good at all for our mental health.
So this Ojizou-sama helps us stay in peace every day.  He is such a sweet complaint listener.
Isn't it nice to see a board besides him, which says "All complaints this Ojizou-sama hears  are CONFIDENTIAL."

Maybe next time I visit there,  of course, not to complain but to say hello,  I'd like to meet the temple priest as well and ask him about how this little guardian diety has started his mission.
This is the sweetest Ojizou-sama I have ever seen.

Reunion

Friendship is one of  the incredible miracles in our life.  No matter how long or how far we are apart,  the same experiences and concerns that we shared in those days never made our friendship fade away.  This turns to be more than happiness when we finally meet again face to face across time and space.

Last weekend all this happened to me . For the first time in 30 years.  This is about the Rotary students who shared two months  during the summer at college in the US, where the Rotary International provided us with the orientation before we left for each applied university in the US.

My close friend, Suchada stopped by Tokyo over the weekend on her way back to LA from BK. We spent two days together. We felt for two days as if we were all riding on a merry-go-round.

Yes finally we made it.  The instant we saw each other at the hotel lobby,   we didn't feel we were apart for such a long time.  Ahead of the fancy dinner with two boys, now gentlemen, in the evening,  three girls enjoyed the afternoon chatting to fill in each 30 years' interval.  And the dinner was just lavish enough to make it up for our 30 years. Our talk seemed endless before we knew we stayed too long at the restaurant.   We talked and laughed a lot. The food was awesome and the service was great.

Now 17 Rotary classmates are united in Facebook group page.  In this reunion with Suchada,  wherever we go,  at every visiting spot,  she and I were busy "check-in" in Facebook with each iPhones to update our photos and messages to the rest of our friends.  It was just fun because every time we checked in,  our friends of all different places on the earth  gave us "likes" instantly.   We giggled at the results.  We owed Facebook so much.  There will be another reunions in the near future in Japan, or somewhere else in this world.  No matter where it comes up,  we will share our exciting moments together.  And one day, we are hoping , all of us will get together at one place like we once used to do.   How thrilling !  This was a great weekend.


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When it is too big to handle,

Our garden is overrun with weeds.

Whenever I visit temples, shrines and even private museums of old Japanese houses,  I feel so guilty for myself not taking good care of our own garden.

If I stayed home all day,   I would have made time to clean up the ground.  Since I have a job,  I make it a rule that I should put a priority to do my chores in a house first.  As a result,  most of the time I end up with indoor chores.   "I just don't have time for our garden."  And what is worse, my husband is away from home  every half a month abroad. He is not here when I really need his help.

Twice a year our gardeners come over to cut and trim all the trees and bushes but that is not enough. Weeds and grasses grow every season and they don't stop  growing  before the gardeners arrive.   Even the gardeners are too busy to spend sitting on the grounds to pick up weeds.  They just cut and trim the trees, sweeping the grounds, loading up all the stuff they cut out  on the trucks and rush to the next job. It still takes several days before they finish our garden.  Its ground is just too big for a housewife to take care of.  Now I am serious about asking a helper from the volunteer gardeners group from the city once a month so that the garden will not turned to be a bush again.

Our house is a typical traditional one.  It has a big garden full of trees around the house.  In the previous generations,  there used to be always someone coming over to clean the ground----but not any more.   Now our old heritage surely takes much time and budget from us  to take care of.  Yet my husband and I never thought  of the idea to abandon  our house and garden.  We like this old house but it is more than old.   Somehow we would like to  preserve it for our next young generation. Some way some how.

A delight in the rain

Finally the rainy season is with us almost everywhere in Japan.

Soon I’ll get fed up with damp and wet climate which lasts about a month. I can’t do without my umbrella all the time.  
Yet one blessing during this season is to see hydrangeas in the rain.  At our back garden, this year too, they surely delight our eyes under a heavy, gray sky.  I'd love to see them especially wear raindrops.  It definitely drags me out of my discrimination against the rainy season.

I didn’t know home of hydrangeas is Japan before I read this on the web a few years ago.

Since they have so many different species throughout the world, it is seemingly hard to state how they were originally introduced at the very first stage.  

Strictly speaking, hydrangeas with round mop heads which are very much popular and  seen at any places in the world are not origin in Japan.  The original one from Japan has fewer outer flowers around smaller tiny inner flowers. 

It is said in 18th century a Japanese hydrangea was brought all the way to Kew Garden, England  by way of China. Soon they started to cultivate so as to meet up with its own condition such as climate, soil. This way they modified flowers to suit their preferences. It is also widely known that in 19th century a German physician and scientist, Phillipp Franz von Seibold introduced 17 species of Japanese plants to a  botanical garden in Lieden, which made it possible for hydrangeas to grow in Europe.

Eventually it was turned to a hydrangea of which head was like a pom-pom. Later a mop head hydrangea was re-imported to Japan.

Nowadays we see mop head hydrangeas at many house gardens or public venues or even at temples and shrines or landscapes in our country. So do original ones with simple frames.  No matter what kind of hydrangea flowers they are, we enjoy seeing a large volume of flowers and amazing color-changes.  They are such a gracious gift in the rainy season.

Do you remember "Travel Volunteer"?

Do you remember "Travel Volunteer"?  
Last year it was just six months after 3.11 Tohoku disaster when Katy Morrison  and Jamie Lafferty started traveling across Japan from north to south for 100 days. 

While traveling, they posted great articles and amazing pictures every day in their blog so as to say Japan is as beautiful as ever and this report helped a lot to support the recovery of tourism to Japan.

Today their blog  was released as a digital book titled "Smiles of Japan"  and it is just free.

Why don't you get this now and read it. No matter whether you are from Japan or from abroad you'll be fascinated with their experiences.

The book is available from URL below:

http://travelvolunteer.net/book01/pageview/pageview.html

Just let me add one thing. 

 It was such a rewarding experience for me that I accompanied them when they visited Aichi Prefecture in Oct. last year.

A notepad in my bag

I feel so bad about my recent absence from updating my blog.  I haven't given up on it, though.  I just didn't have enough time to write. Well, that's an excuse.

This year　I've made up my mind to spend more time as a volunteer guide interpreter rather than that of a language interpreter in English.  It seems to me that there is more opportunity to act as an guide since recently we  don't have big international events such as the Expo or the international conferences in Nagoya that many volunteer interpreters used to make the best of their language ability during the past few years.
One difference between an interpreter and a guide is the latter can talk and explain with her own words and idea ,while the former  is required to translate what other speaks. Both are challenging and on a volunteer base I really like doing both.

Ever since I have more chances to guide visitors from abroad as a volunteer,  I have one addition in terms of the items in my bag.  I always keep a little notepad in my bag to write down some  information for them.  It may not be something new at all for those experienced guides.   Well it  occurs  to me more often when I am not in charge of guiding but at some other occasions such as when I just walk across the tickets machines at a local train or subway station,  I run into a foreign visitor at a loss. Most of the times, he/she is in trouble figuring out the way  to their destination. So I jotted down the directions on a notepad page and hand it out to them. It is interesting but I am often asked to write down the names of the stations, the buildings or even some sentences using the Japanese letters such as "この電車は刈谷駅で止まりますか？　Does this train make a stop at Karia station?"
This happened one day.  The young man from Christchurch who landed on Japan for the first time in his life asked me to do this. He explained that he was going to show this piece of paper  to anyone on a platform so that he would not take a wrong train.   "Ah, that is smart," I thought.
Since then I have a small note pad with me in my bag.  Just a piece of note can be a help.
At the same time, however, I have to keep it in mind that a foreigner in trouble is not necessarily a tourist but a resident and he/she speaks Japanese so well.