TsukuBlog

All the way gloomy days during the 4th till the 6th of July were all worth it by threading the way to and around Tohoku, Japan. Tōhoku (東北), which literally means “East-North” is the northeastern region of Japan’s Honshu (mainland) island. Tohoku is a host to many museums and temples and it has over a dozen of listed tourist attractions, ranging from parks to rivers and mountains.

The trip was organized by the International Students Center of the University of Tsukuba. It was a 3-days hop to the three (3) prefectures of Tohoku namely, Iwate, Miyagi and Yamagata.

The first prefecture we went to was Iwate. Take a peek at the photos I took. (1. Inside a restaurant 2. One of the temples in Chusonji compund 3. Miyazawa Kenji Museum)

Next destination was Matsushima, Miyagi prefecture. (1. Akiu Ootaki 2. Inside a museum 3. During the bay cruise)

And the last one was Yamagata prefecture. (1. Inside a museum 2. Yamagata ken souvenir shop 3. Cherry fuits)

Although the trip was a little bit tiresome by just sitting inside the bus, the tour guide’s efforts were worth mentioning, trying to be awake and genki (energetic and lively) all the time while all of us are dead tired slumbering in our seats.

The full of memorable stories museums in Iwate, the wonderful splashing waters of the Ootaki in Miyagi, and the tasteful cherries in Yamagata, all made the 3 days trip worth treasuring.

For the rest of the photos in bigger resolution, you may view them in my Zooomr album.

Today is the day we celebrate the current Emperor’s birthday. Emperor Akihito was born in 1933, so I guess that makes him 73 years old today. The former Emperor’s birthday was on April 29, and this date is still a public holiday, although it has been renamed “Green Day”.

In Canada, we celebrate the birth of our Queen on (or before) May 24. This date is actually Queen Victoria’s birthday (May 24, 1819), and not the birthday of our current monarch, Queen Elizabeth (born April 21, 1926). May 24 is considered Queen Elizabeth’s “official” birthday. I usually call this day “Victoria Day”, but it also has other names. In Ontario, we sometimes call it “May Two Four” because “Two Four” is slang for a case of twenty four bottles of beer, which is the usual amount of beer that people buy for a party. After the long, cold winter, Victoria Day weekend gives people a chance to go outside again and relax. In Canada, it is common for people to have cottages or trailers, but they are often not winterized, so the Victoria Day weekend is the first time that people go to their cottages or trailers in the year. There is a lot of cleaning to be done on that weekend, but we try not to let that interfere with the party spirit. In other parts of Canada, this weekend is apparently known as “May Long” or “May Run”. (I have never heard these terms before, but I just found them on Wikipedia.)

I always assumed that monarchs were expected to have an official birthday that didn’t move around, so I was surprised to find out that December 23 is the current Emperor’s actual birthday. I like the fact that everyone gets a holiday on that day, and that the previous Emperor’s birthday has also been preserved.

You can read more about the Emperor’s birthday and Victoria Day on Wikipedia.

Hi Everyone,

Would you like to send your love and best wishes with a special Christmas Card from Santa to your children and friends?!

You can with “Hiroo Santa Mail”, and you can apply to get a Christmas Card (write your own message) from Santa, addressed and delivered to your children or to friends in Japan and overseas. The Santa Mail comes from Santa Town in Hokkaido. I think it’s really cute, and very special for your kids!

Applications close: 30 November 2006
Santa Mail delivered: 19-25 December 2006

Cost: 500 yen (This is same cost for delivery in Japan or overseas. You can pay at Post Office or apply and pay by Credit Card or Bank Transfer via the website).

Website: www.santaland.or.jp
You can apply and pay via the website (In Japanese). There is also a colourful pamphlet available at the post office.

Merry Christmas!

Kate Neath

Japan has traditionally had two major HOLIDAY SEASONS, the winter O-Shogatsu (New Year’s) and the summer O-Bon Festival for welcoming the spirits of deceased relatives. Of course, now there is also the spring-time string of national holidays which has come to be known as Golden Week, but this is a very recent addition to the Japanese annual cycle of life.

During O-Shogatsu and O-Bon it HAS been and STILL IS customary to return to ones native town, meet relatives, visit the family graves, eat special foods, and perform certain rituals.

In contemporary Japan, the O-Shogatsu Holiday now coincides with the Western New Year, with the first day of the year being January first.

This has only been true, though, since 1873 when Japan as a nation converted to the use of the Western (Gregorian) calendar. Before that time, a traditional calendar was used which is now referred to as the kyureki (旧暦), which was a lunar-based calendar with additional sun-based features which helped to keep it in line with the actual seasons. Until the new calendar was adopted, O-Shogatsu was celebrated sometime between January 21 and February 19th on the Gregorian calendar.

Now it is very rare indeed to find any Japanese who celebrate New Year’s on Kyu-Shogatsu, though there are a few events and ceremonies that can be found at a few villages around Japan (especially in Okinawa) which remind us that there once was another time to celebrate New Year’s.

Of course, THE place for Kyu-Shogatsu revelry is Yokohama’s Chinatown.

The case with the O-Bon Festival is quite the opposite. This major annual event was always held in the 7th month of the kyureki which was almost always August on the Gregorian calendar. However when the calendar changed, most Japanese continued to celebrate O-Bon in August! The O-Bon holidays are also fixed in mid-August. In Ibaraki, Tsukuba’s prefecture, it is natural for everyone to celebrate O-Bon in August.

However, since the fervor for the changes of the Meiji Reformation, including the new calendar, all emanated out of Tokyo, many residents of that great megalopolis, as well as those in the neighboring prefectures such as Kanagawa or Chiba celebrate O-Bon in July! That is because now July is the 7th month!

So don’t be surprised when you ask a friend what they did last week and they tell you that they went back to their hometown (for example Kawasaki) for O-bon. They are just adherents of the New Bon, or Shin-Bon. They might also tell you how convenient it is because they do their O-Bon rituals in July and are free to enjoy themselves during the summer vacation!

You may also have noticed the abundance of fully garbed Buddhist priests on the trains in Tokyo last week on their way to perform sutra readings for O-Bon.

You might also find that some people are starting to put up Tanabata decorations this week. These people are observers of the Kyu-Tanabata.

If this sounds difficult, it is. Getting to understand Japan does not come easy and this confusion over the calendar does not help!

Happy studies!

The vegetation is closing in all around you, while the shrill droning of cicadas and other insects pounds in your head. The heat-waves radiating off the ground and buildings make it seem as if the air itself were a living, throbbing organism. August is when nature in Japan is most pulsatingly alive. It is also the time when special consideration is given to the Dead. Since ancient times (records date from the 6th century) the 13th day of the 7th lunar month (our August) has been a time to light fires(lanterns these days) for the O-Bon Festival (the origin of the expression bonfire?). These were used to guide and welcome back the spirits of departed ancestors who are believed to return to their native homes for three days. These visiting souls are consoled with sutra chanting, offered food, drink and incense, and entertained by the community with Bon-Odori dancing (which is never TOO interesting so as to make sure that no spirits would want to overstay their welcome!). On the evening of the 16th, a fire is lit again as a send off, often accompanied by offerings which are cast onto a river or into the sea. It is interesting that though the dates of most Japanese traditional events have been changed due to the introduction of the Western calendar (see my article: Lunar or Solar?), most Japanese outside of Tokyo still keep the O-Bon celebration in August, now the 8th month (this could possibly be because farmers would have been too busy in July).

In addition to the festival for the Returning Spirits of the Dead (O-Bon), there are three more days in August connected with remembrance, all of them related to the war that ended sixty three summers ago.  Each national or cultural group with its own  identity utilizes whatever tools it has at its disposal to embed its own particular view of history into its members. In Japan, the powers that be have naturally used this country’s comprehensive education system, the mass media, and public holidays and monuments to effectively shape the way most people remember the war and think about themselves and others.  What has become stressed in Japan is that THIS country and its citizens suffered UNIQUELY during the war.   August 6th and 9th are reserved for ceremonies commemorating the horrors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (respectively). August 15th, which by strange coincidence is also the peak day of O-Bon, is the day which marks the end of the war (another reason to have O-Bon in August) and is most famously commemorated at Yasukuni Shrine, where throngs of visitors come to pay their respects to all soldiers who died in service of the emperor.

For at least half a century, after WWII, people who grew up in the English speaking(and many other countries of the) world  would instantly think of Pearl Harbor and kamikaze pilots if JAPAN were mentioned in a word association game. That is because some countries (especially the US) use the story of their successful fight against tyranny in Japan as a way of building an effective national identity. Americans are taught of the treacherous sneak attack on sleeping Americans in Hawaii (wait, didn’t  George Washington use sneak tactics to defeat the British) and the fanatically determined foe who had no regard for human life (kamikaze pilots) which justified the dropping of the atomic bombs, which also saved countless US lives (wait, wouldn’t that mean that Vietnam,fiercely attacked without provocation, would have been perfectly justified in nuking the US, and anyway how can the incineration of 100,000 civilians and the fatal irradiation of that many more ever be JUSTIFIED). 

Like many, I grew up hearing and reading about the war. For Americans, the story of the heroic struggle against dictatorship and the eventual bringing of democracy to Japan(through its total destruction) was a point of national pride and an important part of the national consciousness. For me it is not surprising that George W. Bush,whose father fought in the Pacific,would want to carry out a similar GOOD FIGHT(in his opinion) in the Middle East, as he was raised in a generation even more full of the MYTH of the BENEVOLENT, democracy bringing effects of American military force.

 Growing up in the 70`s,before ever imagining that I would one day live in Japan, I learned of all the great battles major figures and intrigues of the war.

 Arriving in Japan to study at university  first exposed me to the fact that different countries or groups talk about the same story in very different ways.  While I knew all the major battles and many details of what the Japanese often call The Pacific War, people my age seemed to know almost  nothing at all. And since the topic hardly ever arose (except with my 85 year old friend Toshiko who lost her husband in the war), I too started to forget about it, or certainly not dwell on it.

For that reason it took me a few years to realize that Tsuchiura City and Ami Town near Arakawa-Oki Station played a major role in Japan’s Imperial history. While what is now Tsukuba City was mostly forested and very sparsely populated (because of a lack of water resources) Tsuchiura and Ami thrived as Kasumigaura was used for training the Imperial Navy’s pilots. With  huge bases (which still exist in a much diminished form having been broken up for industrial use) and thousands of soldiers, sailors, pilots and technicians. Business boomed.

Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, the reluctant planner of the Pearl Harbor attack lived in Ami at what is now part of Ibaraki University (I found out about this because I was teaching there). The pilots who  participated in the monumentally successful attack trained on Lake Kasumigaura. Tsuchiura`s Sakura Machi entertainment areas’ restaurants were used to celebrate. For a while,Thing were real good.

Unfortunately for the Japanese armed forces the US soldiers turned out to be the REAL fanatical fighters. Remember, Japan`s great triumph and entrance into the BIG BOYS club of Imperialism was its defeat of Imperial Russia at Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. After suffering early, stinging defeats, the Czar decided that it just wasn’t worth fighting anymore and to let the Japanese have what they wanted. I guess the Japanese commanders thought the same would happen with the US after heavy early losses. They could never that imagine boys from Kansas, Ohio, Vermont, etc., would leave their comfortable lives and come out to the jungles of the South Pacific and fight to the death.

By 1945, Japan was in a desperate situation. Losing battles everywhere, and more importantly, running out of equipment and resources.Japanese cities was completely exposed to American bombers who used weapons intended to cause the most possible destruction and death.  In October 1945, the Special Attack Units(tokkotai) were put into action. These were the Kamikaze pilots, boys trained for a few months and then put on a plane loaded with explosives and enough gasoline to get to their targets.

These programs were first initiated in Ami on the shores of Lake Kasumigaura at a school called YOKAREN(予科練）. There is still weapons school on the site which belongs to the Japanese Self Defense Forces and on its grounds is a museum commemorating the boys who died flying missions,especially suicide attacks.

Anyone who is interested can visit the YOKAREN memorial museum. It is free of charge and open everyday until 4:30. The soldiers at the gate (women, each time I’ve been there), are friendly and security is easy-going. Only one person in your group has to write his or her name (no id check).  The weapon school campus is sprawling and not a soul can be seen, making it a very peaceful place. You walk to the museum from the gate and pass by some old pre-war buildings and a large display of armoured vehicles which lines the path.

Inside the memorial museum are the photos, belongings and last wills and testaments of more than 1000 boys, mostly between 15 and 20 years of age, who gave their young lives trying to stop an attack on their country and protect what they were taught they had to: the Emperor.It seems most were country boys,probably from poor families,many of them local.

No matter what you think about the Special Attack Forces, you will probably have to FORCE back the tears when reading the letters these boys wrote to their parents.These show a surprising variety of content.

As there is no English here, if you cannot read Japanese well, you should bring along someone to translate.

Most Japanese people　in Tsukuba do not know about this museum, and naturally most foreign residents don’t either. Most people DO know that Ami is the site of Japan`s first ToysRus outlet(times sure have changed ). To get to the YOKAREN, drive past the big toy store and the army base until you get to the lake. Look for the entrance to the RIKUJO JI EITAI BUKI GAKKO（陸上自衛隊武器学校)

During this season of remembrance, if you have the time, maybe you should head to the shores of Lake Kasumigaura,  think about the past, war, and WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT. There are numerous places in Ibaraki which have had great national impact, but this flight school played a role on the stage of world history and left its mark on our language and culture. it is about a 20 minute drive from Tsukuba Station.

http://www.town.ami.ibaraki.jp/kankou/yokaren/yokaren.htm

By the way, the Hotel Edo-Ya near Mt Tsukuba Shrine used to host the last parties for the Kamikaze Pilots.

They still hold an annual reunion for those who survived.

Did you know that a national health and welfare event for seniors, “Nenrinpic*” will take place in Ibaraki this weekend? Nenrinpic first took place in 1988 and is coming to Ibaraki for the first time! Various sporting and cultural events will take place from November 10 to 13, and senior athletes from all over Japan are coming to Ibaraki.
(* I think the name “ねんりんピック(Nenrinpic)” was coined from a Japanese word for annual growth ring(年輪/nenrin) and Olympics.)

Tsukuba, for example, will be the venue for
- soft-tennis and soft volleyball tourneys for seniors (Doho Park),
- senior art exhibit (Tsukuba City Art Museum),
- medical and health care products exhibit (Epochal Tsukuba),
- fureai (something like “bonding”) festival (Epochal)
- health festival (Epochal)
Please see this page for the information for other venues.

BUT, Nenrin-pic isn’t just for old folks!
Here are some “Fureai Festival” events at Epochal:
Nov. 10, Saturday
NACK 5 public recording
Do expect the crowd if you are planning on spending time around Tsukuba Center area tomorrow because a popular radio station in Saitama called NACK5 (79.5FM) will do its public recording from Epochal Tsukuba, and their guests are an extremely popular duo called Chemistry, a popular pop singer Ami Suzuki and Biyuuden (must be a new female singing trio). The doors open at 12:00, but get there early if you want to get in.

Nov. 12, Monday
Sugiyama Brothers Shows from 11am and 2:30pm
They are well known “bubble” artists! Visit their website for images from their shows.

Nov. 13, Tuesday
Azumi Inoue Conerts from 11am and 2:30pm
You might go, “Who’s Azumi Inoue?” but chances are, you’ve heard her voice if you love Hayao Miyazaki anime. She’s the one who sang “Totoro,” “Kiki” and “Laputa” songs!

You might be wondering why some events are going to be held on weekdays. Well…, it’s because this weekend is actually a big weekend for Ibaraki-ans because…
November 13 is Ibaraki Residents’ Day!
If you have kids who attend public schools, the schools will be out.
(November 14 is Saitama Residents’ Day, by the way.)

From Ibaraki Prefecture website:

This is the day for the residents in Ibaraki Prefecture to think about Ibaraki’s history and to work for the development and progress of our prefecture by enhancing our awareness of autonomy. On July 14, 1871, an imperial prescript of “Haihan-Chiken” (the establishment of prefectures in place of feudal domains) was proclaimed and 305 prefectures were established in total. On November 13 of the same year, the prescript was revised and the number of prefecture was reduced to 75. 11 prefectures were established in the Kantō region, and Nihari-ken, Inba-ken, and Ibaraki-ken were placed in the area that now Ibaraki-ken. Connected with the fact that the name of the prefecture, Ibaraki-ken, was first adopted at this time, this day was established by “Regulation to Establish Residents’ Day” (Ibaraki Prefectural Ordinance #3, March 30, 1968) in 1968, the 100th year from the first year of the Meiji period.

To learn more about Ibaraki, please click here.

On November 13, the admissions to many prefectural facilities and commercial facilities will be free, a half-priced or discounted!!

Admission free facilities are, for example;
Potiron-no-Mori
Ibaraki Nature Museum
Kamine Park
Asakusa Hanayashiki (Nov.7 to 19)
or
please visit this site (Japanese) for the list of other facilities and events.

If you are planning on going to Tokyo Disneyland or sea, you might want to get there soon because you can purchase specially priced tickets during “Ibaraki Weeks (Oct.30 to Nov.13, Nov.10 excluded).” You will have to buy tickets in advance, but doing so is easy since you can buy tickets at JR or TX stations and Lawsons in Ibaraki. Regular ticket prices are 5800yen for adults, 5000yen for junior and high school students and 3900yen for kids over 4y.o., and specially priced tickets are 4800/4300/3400yen.

Have a good weekend everyone :)

Have you heard of the “Seishun 18 Kippu” JR ticket?

The JR group offers this special ticket for summer, winter, and spring vacation seasons. The ticket contains 5 spaces to put date stamps. It is effective until 12 pm on the night of the day a date stamp is entered by station staff or a train conductor. You can take all local JR trains but cannot take rapid or express services. It is not the best option for a quick trip, but it is good for people who have a lot of time but no money, so it is ideal for students.

You can use the ticket 5 times during the period or you can share it with some friends. For example, you can enjoy a 5-day trip for one person or you can enjoy a 2-day trip with a friend and 1 day trip for one person, etc.

For more information for the “Seishun 18 Kippu” JR ticket (English):
http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/pass/seishun18.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2362.html

The usual fare for the “Seishun 18 Kippu” JR ticket is 11,500 yen, so it works out to 2,300 yen/day.

But for this spring vacation, as the 20th anniversary of the JR group, they are selling it only at 8,000 yen! (1,600yen/day!!)

Information for the 20 th anniversary discount (Japanese):
http://www.jreast.co.jp/press/2006_2/20070206.pdf
http://jr-central.co.jp/co.nsf/news/nws200728-144841

FYI, you can go to Kumamoto in Kyushu island from Tokyo with one ticket with the following plan.

There is a night train called “Moonlight Nagara” from Shinagawa station bound for Ogaki in Gifu prefecture during vacation seasons. It departs from Shinagawa at around 23:55. Just buy a normal ticket from Shinagawa to the first station where the train stops after 12 pm (Yokohama or somewhere). And ask the conductor to put a date stamp on the “Seishun 18 Kippu” in the train or when you go out from a gate. Then, you can use the “Seishun 18 Kippu” for 24 hours. You will get to Kumamoto around 11pm after 7 or 8 times transfers. Of course, it can be the cheapest way to get to Kyoto, Osaka or Nara.

Have a nice trip in early spring in Japan!!

September 17 or the third Monday of September is “敬老の日(Keirou no hi),” or the Respect for Senior Citizens Day, which is a national holiday in Japan. Many businesses have special deals for seniors this weekend, so check their websites if you are planning on visiting some place this weekend.

Potiron no Mori
September 16, Sunday
11:00am: All you can eat BBQ at the restaurants
12:30pm and 5:30pm: Anpanman Shows
2:00pm: Bread-making contest
4:00pm: Free admission to the park starts
7:30pm: Naomi Tamura and Christina Hayashi Live
6:30pm: Bingo /Play for a chance to win a “Wii”
8:00pm: Fireworks display
Potiron-no-Mori will be open until 9:00pm during the festival.

September 17, Monday
Citizens over 60 years young and their grandchildren get in FREE!
11:00am: All you can eat BBQ at the restaurants
12:30pm and 2:30pm: Yes! Precure 5 Shows
1:30pm Bingo /Play for a chance to win a “Wii”

Tsukuba Wanwan Land (Dog Park) and
Ibaraki Prefectural Flowerpark in Ishioka
September 17, Monday
Senior citizens over 65 years old get in free!

I’ll list more if I see other good deals for seniors ;)

After 5pm the sun’s cruel and deadening grip began to ease up, and Tsukuba’s old neighborhoods started to come to life. By day, most adults had sought out the comforts of some air-conditioned refuge, while those with no such luxury sufficed with a shady place and a fan to laze away the day watching High School Baseball or the Olympics. It was even hard to spot any kids outside enjoying summer vacation. It seems that, they too, much prefer to be indoors with their beloved video games which have overwhelmingly supplanted hunting for insects and playing in the fields as the number one summer fun.

The evening of August 13th is always filled with excitement in these traditional enclaves. It is the first day of Bon, the three day period in which the souls of departed ancestors return to their hometowns to be with their descendants. Children and grandchildren have arrived. Preparations have been made. The house cleaned, the Buddhist altar (butsudan) set up with the proper decorations and offerings (these can conveniently be purchased at the special O-Bon corners in the supermarkets) and special lanterns and votive strips of paper placed at the front gate or entranceway to the house.

On this evening, the spirits of ancestors will come home, and their living descendants go to the cemetery to greet them and guide them home. This evening I saw Tsukuba’s small graveyards teeming with color and activity as families brought flowers, water and incense, as well as a lantern with which to guide the spirits back to their homes. Many neighborhoods can be seen with streets fully lined with such lanterns so no spirits will lose their way. Homes in which someone has recently passed away usually put out a much larger lantern suspended high on a pole since this will be the first time that that particular soul makes the journey back. These families celebrating a first Bon, might even light a traditional Bon Greeting Fire (迎え火, mukaebi), which have have been almost completely replaced by lanterns, for guiding and welcoming returning ancestral spirits.

When the families arrive home, the spirits are symbolically purified with water and salt, and greeted with 長い道を御苦労さまでした (nagai michi o gokuro sama deshita), you must be tired after your long journey! Then tea is drunk and incense burned.

In Ibaraki, especially around Lake Kasumigaura, there are many villages which continue to keep alive a very interesting custom, which is especially fun for the kids. The spirits of ancestors don’t have to walk from the graveyard. They are transported IN STYLE, on the backs of large dragons or snakes of straw, carried by the village children from the cemetery to EACH HOUSE IN THE VILLAGE where the appropriate ancestors are dropped off with much merriment.

Fortunately, there are also a few neighborhoods in Tsukuba which still keep the same custom, called Bon Tsuna (盆綱), or Tsuna Bon (綱盆). I joined two separate such events (in different parts of Tsukuba) this evening, and I would like to tell you about them.

Before the war, Bon Tsuna had been practiced in numerous hamlets in what is now Tsukuba City. It is now found in only a handful. Today I went around with the the straw dragon of Kami-Sasagi, near Tsukuba Hospital and the Space Center, and also that of Kurihara, farther north, near Tsukuba’s heliport.

In both of these magnificent hamlets, the children make the straw dragons on the morning of the 13th, with the help of some adults. At the end of the day, this year’s dragons are burned. In Sasagi, the dragon was more elaborately made, and well… more dragon-like, while its Kurihara counterpart seemed to be a thick pole made of straw.

The kids of Kurihara, however, certainly, showed lots of enthusiasm and stamina. They carried the heavy pole to more than 30 houses. They ran up to each house with a cry: “The spirits have arrived!” Then they proceeded to toss the dragon into the air about ten times before going on to the next house. In Sasaki, the same went on without the tossing and chanting.

Besides these straw dragons, both in Tsukuba and in some other area of Japan it is customary to decorate the Buddhist altar with a horse and an ox, made from a cucumber and an eggplant, respectively. These are also meant to represent rides for the spirits, and they are often cast off onto rivers or into the sea at the end of the festival. These decorations are fun for kids and utilize IN SEASON vegetables. A friend of mine in his 80s, Yoshida-san, told me something that I had never heard or read anywhere before. He said that the cucumber horse was meant for the arriving spirits, because horses are fast, the ox is for the departure, because it is slower, allowing for some last lingering moments with mortal loved-ones.

Making horses and oxen

No, I didn’t mistype “pay day.”
Today really is “Pear Day” or 梨の日 in Japan.
You may ask “why today?” since pears won’t be in season until fall.

OK, today is July 4 (oh, happy birthday America!), or 7月4日(shichi-gatsu yokka) in Japanese. Some of you may already get the idea, but July 4 was designated Pear Day purely because of 語呂合わせ(goro awase) or word play. As many of you already know, there are a few ways to read numbers in the Japanese language. Number 7 can be “shichi” or “nana” and 4 can be “yon” or “shi.” Since pear in Japanese is 梨(なし) or “nashi,” July 4 (7-4 or “na” “shi”) is the perfect day to celebrate 梨の日(nashi no hi).

Another such “語呂合わせ-Day” is coming up soon, and that is 納豆の日(natto no hi) on July 10. Natto, of course, is the fermented soybeans Mito City, the capitol of Ibaraki is famous for. March 10 is “Mito Day” by the way, and Mito celebrates that by holding various events, natto eating contest being one of such events.