Japanese Word 'Teppou (Gun)' Has Two Different Meanings

In Japan, "blowfish" ("Fugu" in Japanese) have been called “Teppou (which means a GUN)” as another name, because it has very strong poison in the organs and if you are hit by the poison while eating blowfish it would be fatal.

However, since old times Japanese people have been attracted by the taste of the fish and now it is one of the very expensive food items. We don’t know clearly when and how Japanese people started eating blowfish, there must be many people who died by the poison, but even after most people became aware of it as a dangerous fish people couldn't give up enjoying it. The fish has such a delicious meat. 

You might be interested in trying it now. Don't worry! There aren’t such scary accidents anymore. Nowadays, cooking blowfishes requires a special license in Japan and  licensed cooks’ work is very reliable.

Traditionally it is said that the season for blowfish is from around fall equinox day to around spring equinox day. Therefore, it is almost over at the end of March, however with freezers and improved farm raising techniques, you can find blowfish dishes throughout the year in some restaurants as shown in the photo above.

A Traditional Japanese Sweets For Equinoctial Weeks With Two Names

March 20th was the Spring Equinox Day. Traditionally, the seven days including the Equinox Day in both spring and fall are named “Ohigan Week”. The direct translation of “Ohigan” is “the other shore”, it means “the world of the dead”. For this year, 2016, "Ohigan Week" started on March 17th and ended March 23rd.

In Japanese traditional custom, it is a week for people to visit their family graves or to pray for their deceased family/ancestors at home. When families get together during this week in March to visit graves or to pray for their ancestors at home, one kind of traditional sweets(in the left photo) is usually prepared. 

Commonly, it has three kinds of flavors, which are sweet sesame, sweet soy powder(Kinako), and sweet mashed red beans(Anko). It’s not a spring seasonal sweets, because it is also served during the Fall Equinoctial Week.

However these sweets do have seasonal names. It is a unique feature, as it changes the name for the other season. In spring, it is usually called “Botamochi” and it is said that the name represents Botan-flower(Peony flower) which is a popular spring flower shown in the upper right hand side photo. On the other hand, in fall it is usually called “Ohagi” and the name came from Hagi-flower(Japanese bush clover), which is a typical fall flower in Japan and it is shown in the lower right hand side photo.

Nowadays not all Japanese people change the name according to the season, but I think it is a nice way to keep the sense of the season.

White Day: Did You Get/Give Return Gifts for the Valentine's Day Chocolates?

It's March 14th, which is called White Day in Japan! As I wrote previously last month on this blog, White Day is the day for boys/men to give return gifts to the girls/women who gave Valentine's Day gifts to them. Therefore many shops sell small gift items before the White Day, and shopping malls and department stores have a special corner for it as you can see in the photos. In towns you may see a long line in front of some popular sweets shops and cake shops in this season.

So, working men who received "Giri Choco (Social Chocolates gift)" at work may have the same stress for the White Day as working women for Valentine's Day to choose nice return gifts. However, finding a nice return gift for the day is not always men's task.

Many men who are in manager class or higher usually receive many chocolates on Valentine's Day from women who are under his charge, but generally these men wouldn't enjoy going out to find many small gifts in women's items sections or cute sweets sections. Moreover some of them have no idea on what would be proper return gifts, so and therefore they entrust the task to their wives. For this reason customers at White Day gift corners are not only men. Wives also go there to buy nice gifts instead of their husbands.

It can be a stressful task for the wives, too, but apparently some wives are saying that it is a good opportunity to keep a watchful eye on husbands' inappropriate human relationships at work. Oops, hope their husbands' are "shiro" (means "white" or "innocence" in Japanese) from the suspicion!

Cleaning Up Girls' Festival Display Might Be Important To Avoid Late Marriage

I introduced Japanese traditional Girls' Festival (Hina-Matsuri) on March 3rd previously on my two blogs (this "Yuko's Japan Gide" and in "Yuko Takayama") and I'd like to talk about this traditional event a little more.

The Hina-Dolls (special dolls set for Hina-Matsuri) are seasonal displays same as Christmas trees. So people take the dolls out of their closets only for this season. It's been two days since the Girls' Festival (Hina-Matsuri) Day, how long do people keep displaying the dolls?

I guess most people have already put them back into their closet, even though Hina-Dolls can be seen in shops' display and exhibitions. Actually, since old times it has been said that if a family delays putting Hina-Dolls back into their closet after the Hina-Matsuri Day, their daughters would also have a delay in their marriages. Therefore as soon as the Hana-Matsuri day is finished, people clean up the display and put the dolls back into their closets.

Of course nowadays people know it is just a superstition. However, many parents take their children's late marriages as a serious problem, therefore they might as well put the dolls back into the closet, though daughters themselves may not care about it.

I have an episode about this superstition in my family. My sister is a single working woman and living near my parents. One day my mother visited her house and found a small Hina-Dolls set displaying in her house. It was in January, so my mother said "Oh you are such an early-bird! Already displaying for Girls' Festival!" My sister replied "Nope, I display them there throughout the year because they are so pretty." At that moment my mother screamed and told my sister "Put them back into your closet NOW!" I guess even today breaking the superstition could be a threat to some people.

How Many Hina-Dolls Set (Girls' Festival Doll Set) Does A Japanese Family Have?

March 3rd is the traditional Girls' Festival Day called "Hina-Matsuri" in Japan. It is one of the major seasonal events though it is not a national holiday. People display special dolls set called "Hina-dolls" which represent a prince and a princess, a happily married couple, with their attendants, and the imperial court people. The display is decorated with  peach flowers and offerings such as diamond-shaped colorful rice-cakes (Hishimochi) or a special rice-crackers (Hina-Arare) shown in the lower right hand side photos to wish girls' healthy growth and happy marriage.

Most families who have daughters celebrate this day with a kind of Sushi called Chirashi-zushi, clam soup, and white opaque non-alcohol drink called Ama-Zake (Sweet Sake) which is made of sake lees and sugar.

Regarding the Hina-dolls, the traditional full set is pretty big. It is displayed on 7 stairs covered by a red cloth shown in the left hand side photo. Prince and Princess couple is put on the top of the stairs, the second step from the top is for three maids, the third is for five musicians, and there are ministers, soldiers, dishes and furniture on rest of the steps.

However, nowadays it is difficult for many families to have a full set of "Hina-dolls" because it requires a big space in the house. Various smaller sets are available. as long as a doll set includes a prince and princess wearing ancient noble's formal kimono as shown in the upper right hand side photo, it is considered "Hina-dolls". Therefore, size-wise and price-wise there is a wide range of "Hina-dolls". A gorgeous full set can be several hundreds of thousand Yen (several thousand dollars) or more.

When a family has a baby girl, they usually prepare "Hina-dolls" for their baby when the baby has her first "Hina-Matsuri" celebration. Sometimes the parents buy the dolls or it can be the grand-parents buying the dolls for their grand daughter to wish her healthy growth and happiness.

What happens if the parents have a second daughter? And a third daughter? Will the family skip buying "Hina-dolls" again? Actually many girls would have their own "Hina-dolls" in these days. Since the dolls are usually bought for a baby girl at her first Hina-Matsuri to wish her health and happiness, it seems that many parents think it's better to be fair for each daughter.

Thus a family may keep increasing the number of "Hina-dolls" set if they have many daughters. Moreover the mother might keep her own "Hina-dolls" set in their house, too. Then the dolls can occupy a quite big space in their closets. However, birth rate is decreasing in Japan to fewer than two children per a family, so probably most people are not worried about the space problem.

Anyway, happy "Hina-Matsuri"!!

Traditional Japanese Remedy at Hot Springs, "Touji (Hot-Spring Cure)"

"Touji (Hot-Spring Cure)" is a well known folk remedy in Japan since old times. Old-days people found that taking hot-spring bath everyday was good for recuperating after injuries, healing sicknesses, joint problems, skin problems and so on by experiences.

Although there are hot-springs everywhere in Japan, some of the hot-springs are especially famous for "Touji" and in these hot springs people would come across stories such as "a historical lord such as such stayed here for Touji". Since medical circumstances have changed it's probably becoming less common, but we can still see some people staying long at a hot-spring for "Touji". 

Actually even now most Japanese believe in the medicinal benefit of hot-springs to some extent though they usually can't put "Touji" into practice. It would be difficult for most people to take such a long vacation and also it would cost a lot. Even when they travel to a hot-spring for just a weekend, many people care about chemical characteristics of the hot-spring water and if the water is really drawn from a natural hot-spring source. Also people tend to make sure if the hot-spring water is not recycled in the bath when they choose a hotel/Ryokan(Japanese style hotel).

You might be skeptical about the benefits of hot-springs. If so please visit a hot-spring which is famous for "Touji". It would be really different from taking a bath filled with hot tap water!

The photo above was taken at Tamago-Yu Ryokan (Tamago-Yu Hotel) in Takayu hot-spring, Fukushima prefecture. The small thatched house in the photo is their main hot-spring bath house. It is said that the house has been maintained for 140 years. Apparently this place is very popular for those who expect medical benefits of hot-springs.