Since tomorrow is Halloween, this sweets seems like a special sweets for Halloween, but it is a Japanese sweets called "Kasutera" which has a long history. The bat design is actually the trademark of one of the major Kasutera makers, "Fukusaya", although the orange and purple colors on the box are their new seasonal design for this Halloween season. Then, why the "Fukusaya" is using a bat design as their trademark? Does it really have no connection with Halloween? As you can see in the photos, the maker started their business in 1624, which is during Samurai time, precisely Tokugawa Shogunate era (1603-1867). Although in the beginning they use one of the Chinese characters for their name, "福（Fuku）" as their trademark, 12th president of Fukusaya changed it to a bat design in the beginning of Modern era and it was still too early time for Japanese people to know about Halloween. However, apparently the bat design came from a foreign culture. Fukusaya's original trademark, "福（Fuku）" is a Chinese character means "Fortune/Luck" and Fukusaya had been trading with China to buy one of the main ingredients for Kasutera sweets, sugar, since the beginning. Thus the 12th president of Fukusaya got an idea of their new trademark using a symbol of fortune/luck in China. That was the bat design. I'm sure nobody expected it in old times, but their fortune/lucky symbol got a lucky coincidence, and now the package with their trademark perfectly fits Halloween season!
In these years Halloween became really popular in Japan. Shopping malls and restaurants started to have Halloween events and many people enjoy wearing costumes and having Halloween parties although most people didn't know much about it 10 years ago. Now towns are filled with lots of Halloween goods as you can see in the upper photos above and many companies are selling Halloween version sweets. Even some beer companies started selling pumpkin beer, but the taste is different from pumpkin beer in U.S.A. Needless to say, but Halloween is originally an event with scary evil spirits. Therefore in U.S.A. I have seen many Halloween decorations which looks very scary. However Japanese people always tend to love "Kawaii (cute/lovely)" stuff, then it seems like they imported cute characteristics and fun feature of Halloween into Japan. Thus Halloween decorations and Halloween goods shops in Japan look just cute. As you can see in the lower right hand side photo, some sweets even have the words of "Lovely Halloween". "Kawaii (cute/lovely)" is now becoming a big trend stream recognized world-widely. Since Japanese people had modified Christmas and Valentine's Day into Japanese style events, this cute and lovely Halloween is going to be "Japanese style Halloween"?
Today, on October 26th, I saw the top of Mt. Fuji over a sea of heavy fog was covered by snow first time for this fall! It was a fantastic view. Apparently this was a date record equaling the latest first snow-cap in fall and 26 days later than the average. Last year it happened on the October 14th, and I wrote a post on my another blog "Yuko Takayama". More photos of Mt.Fuji view from West Tokyo area are here! (Please click here to see them!)
I'm writing about Japanese trains and how people enjoy trains in Japan lately in my posts on October 14th (Yuko's Japan Guide), also 18th and 19th (Yuko Takayama). Then there is one more factor which helps to increase the popularity of trains and I'd like to introduce it this time. In these years, many of Japanese companies and even municipalities have some mascots like baseball teams and they help these companies by giving friendly feeling to people. What's more, actually these mascots can cause a situation that they get people's attention and make the company or municipality popular. Since Japanese people love mascots and it happens often, so companies and municipalities are nowadays very serious about having a cute or characteristic mascots. Of course, train companies are not exception. Today, most companies have some characters for their train lines and they also sell many products featuring their mascots, such as pens, notes, and sweets. A good example of it would be "Suica Penguin" which is a mascot of JR East (East Japan Railroad Company). You might have seen it already, since the mascot design is on their prepaid e-money card called "Suica". The penguin character was originally created for the Suica card because prepaid e-money card was a completely new way to pay train fees at that time. the company tried to get people's attention to push the big change from paying by cash to using prepaid e-money cards. The penguin character became really popular quickly, probably more than the company expected. Some people got "Suica card", not to try the new system but to get a card with the cute penguin character. Today, the Suica penguin became the image character of JR East company and we can find many Suica Penguin goods at shops inside or beside stations of JR East company. I guess to get a popular mascot brought a very strong advantage for the train company because the population of train lovers consists of mainly men and boys since old times, but with the character the company got many women and girls fans anew. Now you can see how important these mascots are, right?
Today, October 14th is a memorial day for Japanese railroad since it is the day the first railroad business of Japan began services 144 years ago. It was fifth year of Japanese first modern government, Meiji Government, which was established after Tokugawa Shogunate government collapsed and Samurai era was ended. At that time, trains run only between Shinbashi in Tokyo and Yokohama in Kanagawa prefecture and the distance was only 18 miles (29 km). However, now train lines are covering all over Japan and it has been the most common means for traveling. It's still much faster than cars' travel and easier than getting on airplanes. Also since Japanese expressway is all toll roads, train fees are not too expensive travel expenses compared with it. In addition, the popularity of train lines is not because of only practical reasons. There are many railroads/trains lovers in Japan. Therefore every time when there is a new train line opened people rush to there. Moreover some of them are really into railroad/train business deeply like railroad-mania, or train-mania and they tend to travel to enjoy train lines than to get on trains to travel to their destinations. Somehow railroads/trains attract people a lot in Japan. The model trains toy shown in the photos is also not only for kids. There are very real train models and some train lovers enjoy making dioramas with them. I don't know when it began but nowadays the maniac-type fans of railroads/trains are called "Tetsu" among people. Funnily, the meaning of the name based on the direct translation would be "Irons", because the Japanese word for "railroad" is "Tetsu-dou (iron-road)". Back to the original topic, in 1922, October 14th was set up as "Railroads' Memorial Day" initially, then the name was changed to "Railroads Day" in 1994. Apparently, every year before and after Trains' Day, special events and festivals related to railroads/trains take place here and there, also at museums of railroads/trains. If you are interested in Japanese railroad/train fan's world, you can take a look at it in these places!
I introduced an international gods group called "Shichifukujin (Seven Good Luck Gods)" in my previous post on the October 2nd. The Shichifukujin gods are very popular and many Shinto shrines and Buddhism temples all over Japan worship them separately. In the Shichifukujin Gods, only "Benzaiten" is a goddess. In Japanese language, there is an idiom to express this situation. When people see only woman in a group she is called "Kouitten (a red dot)" in the group. So we can say "Benzaiten" goddess is "Kouitten (a red dot)" in the gods group. The origin of the idiom is an ancient Chinese poetry and it was telling about only red flower blooming in a green bush and it is standing out. Then the word turned to be used for the situation that there is only woman/girl in a group. Unfortunately there is no antonym of the idiom for a man in a women's group. Perhaps we should create a new idiom like "only green dot for the opposite situation? The shrine in the lower photos is a "Benzaiten Shrine" inside of Yakuo-in Temple on Mt. Takao in Tokyo. It is inconspicuous and located in backside of temple buildings, so it would be a kind of off-the-beaten-track place on the temple ground. When you have a chance to visit Mt. Takao Yakuo-in Temple, please check the hidden "A red dot of Shichifukujin" shrine!
I have introduced about Japanese Shinto several times in my previous posts and explained that Japanese Shinto is a religion based on nature worship, which says that there are countless gods and goddess for everything in nature. These many gods and goddess are colloquially called “Eight Million Gods”. It seems like the “Eight Million Gods” can really include everything because Japanese people have worshiped so many different things, people and gods at Shinto shrines in history. Actually until Japanese first modern government made a law to separate Shinto gods and Buddhism clearly, people had mixed Shinto and Buddhism and Buddhism statues were often worshiped at shrines. With the concept of “Eight Million Gods”, probably it wasn't strange to do. In fact not only Buddha and Buddhism guardians but also some of other foreign gods have been taken in Shinto shrines. Then, people even made a new gods group for wishing a good luck. It is a team of seven gods including six foreign gods and a Japanese god, and named "Shichifukujin (7 good luck gods)". The members of the "Shichifukujin (7 good luck gods)" are Fukurokuju (Taoism god from China), Juroujin (Taoism godfrom China), Ebisu (Japnanese god), Daikokuten (Hinduism god from India), Hotei (Buddhism monk from China), Bisyamonten (Hinduism god from India), and Benzaiten (Hinduism goddess from India). So, it's an international gods' group established in Japan and it is said that it was created in the 14-16 century. Nobody knows how it started, but apparently the idea came from a famous Chinese subject for a drawing, "The Seven Wise Men In a Bamboo Forest". In some areas, people added one more god and made it "Eight good luck gods" since eight is a lucky number in Japan. By the way, for the most common design of "Shichifukujin" would be a "fortune ship set" that the seven gods are riding on a ship together as you can see in the red box in the photos above. However, to worship "Shichifukujin", usually the statues are placed separately in different shrines and temples and people can enjoy going on a pilgrimage all seven gods to make a wish for a good luck. It's been a popular activity called "Shichifukjin Meguri (The seven good luck gods pilgrimage). When you search the word "Shichifukujin", you would be able to find many places to enjoy the pilgrimage of seven gods. It would be a nice walk trip especially in this fall season!
