When I go on Japanese Airlines, I really love it because I like Japanese food.

- Phil Collins -

On March 3, Hinamatsuri (雛祭り) is celebrated in Japan. This Girls’ Day, a.k.a. Dolls’ Festival, is a day to pray for a young girl’s growth and happiness.

Girls' Day in Japan

On my very first Hinamatsuri living in Japan, I was invited by a student’s mom to attend her daughter’s hinamatsuri celebration. My being a foreigner also lured other moms to her house to have a closer look at me – the foreigner with yellow hair and a high nose. And being from Germany also added even more to my being an exotic guest (Kitakyushu had a population of over one million, only four of them German citizens).

They asked about my previous employment in Germany. I told them about my job in management and was surprised to learn they limited my skills  to that of an office lady (OL). As late as the early 90s, office ladies existed en masse within Japanese companies. Their job description entailed the following: be young and pretty, willing to make copies and serve tea.

With great effort due to my then limited Japanese speaking skills and their low English listening skills, it was difficult to convey I had not been an OL. But I managed, but then I got classified as a career woman. Among others, future Rabenmutter also entered my mind. Career woman just sounded being so selfish, with these moms tending to their children’s educational needs and their husbands’ appetite.

It was rather difficult for these Japanese wives to place me in the middle – I was a young woman in my late 20s, working to make a living away from home, and paying my own bills.

A lot has changed in these past 20 years. Young Japanese women have more options nowadays and can fill the in-between spots in society. They have the freedom to be   more than an OL, yet also more than a housewife, and succeed in a career without being called a career woman.

Japan

When travelling to Japan, you might want to pick up a box of these sushi erasers for your friends and family back home.

Iwako's eraser collection (box of 60)

For more information, visit Iwako Japanese eraser

One of the things I brought back from Japan a long time ago was a new perspective on common items.

The first time I saw spaghetti served like a sandwich on a bread roll in Japan, my thoughts went from culinary shock to sheer amazement. I learned then you could take two common items and put them together in a new form, you’ve got an invention.

The one below is not a new one, but it had been for me at that time. I saw the Japanese housewife trimming pretty blossoms off otherwise dead plants and placing them in water in a color contrasting bowl.

Japanese aesthetics

This is what I did today with a dead bouquet and an antique Imari bowl brought back from Japan. I enjoyed this part of recycling and recreating.
The Story of Imari: The Symbols and Mysteries of Antique Japanese Porcelain from Amazon.com

In 1950, six students built six sculptures in Odori Park in Sapporo, which marked the beginning of the annual Snow Festival. The festival, in its 61st year, chose the Frauenkirche in Dresden to be replicated in snow for this year’s festival.

In October 2009, a delegation of officials visited Dresden to study the church’s architecture. After having built a wooden replica, the task force got started on their chore of working in subzero temperatures and long nights. The snow festival runs from 05 Feb – 11 Feb 2010, and on 12 February it will get demolished after having been viewed by 2 million visitors.

Nothing unusual so far, but when Japan uses its military to work on civil projects, it strikes a different tone in Germany. 150 members, male and female, part of the communication unit, are rebuilding the Frauenkirche in snow, which has attracted the attention of the German media.

The Japanese military commander calls working in icy temperatures Abhärtungstraining (inurement practice).  In Japanese terms, this kind of work requiring endurance, is always greeted with がんばってね ! (Try hard!) and when we lived in Japan, we heard this on many occasions.

The German Tagesschau has a three minute video clip and photo gallery on its website about the Japanese soldiers rebuilding a 28-meter German church out of snow.

Germany’s surprise reaction is twofold; Germans have a hard time imagining using soldiers for civic art and subjecting its people to so-called inhumane working conditions.

The Japanese are very good in regards to thinking out-of-the box. Where else could you get married with three different religious ceremonies all performed in one day? Some Japanese women replace their long desired family addition with a puppy and parade it around in a stroller. Some grown women wear girly socks and braids, young women like to do cosplay, or last year’s trend of some men wearing bras for comfort. Others are shy and reserved in regular life, but a real talent on stage or a hit at the Karaoke bar.

The Japanese know how to reinvent themselves. In spite of spatial boundaries, the Japanese mind knows few limits when it comes to accepting new trends and modifying traditions in new ways.

Perception of good and bad working conditions differ greatly in both countries. This shows in the number of days and hours most Japanese are supposed to be at their workplace (work efficiency is be another story). Endurance is a valuable trait and needs to be taught early on.

When we lived in Japan, we had to get accustomed to seeing kindergartners walking around in shirts and shorts on cold winter mornings. The first time I saw this parade of half-naked little kids, the overcuddled German part of me was shocked at first. But I have come to see its benefits, especially since having returned to the land of the Strumpfhosenpolizei, which is at the opposite end of the cold endurance spectrum.