days and dolls

Happy belated International Women's Day! to all you women out there. Yay for us. It's not something that's really celebrated or recognized here in Japan - it doesn't bring the same amount of attention as it did in Russia or Italy. I remember Daria telling me that OF COURSE you get congratulations and flowers and presents just for being a woman - duh. Right, duh. I've missed some days that people DO celebrate here - some that are recognized worldwide and some that are unique (I think) to Japan.

Okay, so Valentine's Day isn't really a global celebration (except maybe for chocolate manufacturers), but it is celebrated differently here in Japan: women buy presents (chocolate) for the men in their lives, but men do not reciprocate. There's a day, coming up soon in March - White Day - that is the reciprocate-the-gift day; if your girlfriend or Valentine bought you something on V-day, you (are obligated to?) buy her something on March 14, White Day. According to Wikipedia, White Day was started in 1978 by the National Confectionary Industry Association (surprise), as an "answer day" to Valentine's Day; and get this: men are "expected to return the favor by giving gifts, usually more expensive". There's more: "Sometimes the term sanbai gaeshi (三倍返し, literally, "thrice the return") is used to describe the generally recited rule that the return gift should be two to three times the cost of the Valentine's gift". So people keep tabs? Hmmmm... let's see - I got Steve a bottle of Crown Royal and he got me.... ooooh he got me the most amazing stuff - lavender patchouli vanilla body scrub from Sabon. Actually, I'm pretty sure that DID cost two to three times as much as the Crown did - booze is cheap and Sabon is expensive.

I also missed Girls' Day or Hinamatsuri (Doll Festival) - oops. On March 3rd, families pray for the health and prosperity of their girls, who dress up in kimonos and visit friends. There are special eats, and a special tiered platform of dolls is set up at home (I think). I didn't see any kimono-clad girls, and come to think of it the girls that I taught in class weren't dressed up either... (but they were wearing makeup - hmmm...) Anyways, the stores were full of special Hinamatsuri day treats - pastel coloured mini cookies and candies and rice cakes and rice balls. And the doll-tower: these are not everyday dolls - they are intricate and fancy and are to be looked at and not touched (yeah right). I know this because the holiday was on the same day that Nao and I went to the Room to Read event, and there was a pyramid of dolls set up at the hotel; Nao explained that the top tiers were the Emperor and the Empress, and then coming on down the line were ladies in waiting, musicians, ministers and protectors. There are sometimes more dolls on more tiers, but there are always more accessories: musical instruments, carts, sake cups and bottles, rakes, rice cakes... and more. Nao laughed and said that many of these little trinkets and mini-things would go missing - the girls would play with them and lose them and then get yelled at. That's pretty much how it goes, no?


and a picture of me in Village Vanguard, a store packed with crrrrrazy weird cool stuff