03/03/2010 Hina Matsuri (Japanese Doll Festival)

Holiday! I am officially on holiday!!! :-)

Yesterday I did my last Japanese exam after the ones that I took also on Monday. Today, I could not believe it. Getting up and not having to go to Uni or work.... it is a bit strange feeling, because it also means that this special moment of my life is coming to a close... :-( but as I am not going to get sad or pessimistic about it, I will let you know that today I have met my colleague, Tsuda-san, who kindly invited me his weekly training of "sado" ceremony or "tea ceremony". For those that don´t know yet, the traditional Japanese tea ceremony is a long ceremony with a lot of rituals in it (like many things in Japanese culture, but unless you are not told sometimes is difficult to grasp). This practice has been done at lunch time at the work place (so, yes, I went back to the building where I have spent the last months!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony

I was also told that today, March 3, the "Hina Matsuri" is celebrated. It is also called "Girls day". Yuki-san was going today early because whe had a familiy event due to the special day. Actually I saw a stand full of dolls last week when we went for lunch to Okura hotel but had no idea that there was one specific day for this (also realized this morning on the page of Google that they had done something "different". For more explanations about this day, please, follow this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinamatsuri

I have to say that I am impressed by the amount of festival, festivities and more "special" days that the Japanese culture has in their calendars. Almost every month there is one day that is holiday (thanks to my sister, who is preparing her "return" to Japan, I learnt that this month, due to the beginning of the spring, there is also one day off).

And of course, everybody is waiting for the "sakura". Sakura is the time of the "cherry blossom". Very important time for any Japanese but before the sakura, also the "ume" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_mume (and today I learnt about the "momo" -peach- show their beauty in the parks and some streets.

This week, lots of celebrations and the weekend skiing with colleagues from work (Japanese) who are also organizing a Karaoke event for next week as a farewell event. During "bounenkai" (end of the year party) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C5%8Dnenkaiof I noticed that many people were extremely fond of Karaoke. Even the most shy colleagues did their show! This time will be even better because now we know each other and the atmosphere is just excellent! ^-^ By the way, I have learnt lately some "emoticons" to the Asian style and the one that precedes this sentence is what for "westerners" is :-)

Some other emoticons are here below (thanks to Kaori-san for her contribution!)
> (^-^)　(^-^)v（v sign)
> (^_-)(a wink)
> (>_<)(pain)
> (T-T)(sad)
> m(_ _)m(a bow? よろしくおねがいします）
> (^^)/~~~ (/_;) (bye)
> (@_@) (*_*)(surprised)

A few days ago (last week), I realized that according to the Japanese calendar was 22/2/22 or what is the same "palindromic". Ha, ha, I bet that most of you did not know this word in English! No mistery, probably you have guesses that means "that the number read the same both ways". Speaking about reading... there is a though that I have in my head for months and months and is about the differenes in the brain structure that Japanese have to have in comparison to "Westerners". What I mean is the following:

In their culture they open the books or magazines from "our" end, which means that they turn the pages from left to right. Then, they read either from right to left or from top to bottom and to make it more difficult, the "occidental" influence makes reading from left to right and the same for turning the pages... then, no wonder that they must have very skilled and fast brain somehow. Definetly some area more developed than me, for sure! ^_-

And before "calling it a day", I would like to thank to those that have contacted me because heard that there had been some earthquakes in the region. I am fine, thanks for the concern. I only aware about one of them and was far away from Tokyo.

I will come back soon!

Otsukaresamadesu!