Happy Story from Japan
Kyoto family to the rescue
Is it time for a quick feel-good story, or do you want to hear about today’s latest clot-shot casualty?
Feel-good, you say? OK, happy story it is.
Risa, from the north island of Hokkaido, is a long way from home. She chose the University my daughter Lyndi is going to in our hometown and is also in the engineering program. She's a freshman and Lyndi is a sophomore. In Japan, in January of the year that you will turn twenty you celebrate Seijin no Hi, coming of Age Day. It's a big deal.
I remember Seijin no Hi my first year in Japan. I was floored by throngs of 19yr.-old girls with fancy, styled hair, in furisode kimonos, cute little slippers, and furry scarf collars, popular at the time.
The boys celebrate too, sometimes in a a kimono but usually a black suit will suffice.
The last three pictures. If I had to guess: 1. Managerial class. 2. Working class. 3. I was going to say a mix as the kid on the right with glasses looks like he could end up a paper pusher, but then, the earrings. These guys like to hang loose and won’t be bossed around by a lifetime office functionary; he’ll be in construction, so working class.
It's all pretty fun to watch, giggling, dolled up girls going around in groups, holding their purses, and the boys, laughing, joking and acting cool together. Inevitably, the boys will be told to tuck in their dress shirts for the afternoon speech that they’ll have to stand through, only to go wild again when it’s done.
Risa is kind of shy and not real sporty so I think she keeps to her studies and doesn't participate in club activities. Lyndi, on the other hand, loves club and they have tons at the U. She joined three right off the bat: badminton club, a-capella choir, and Rubic's cube club! She was too busy with all three and had to leave one, so she left Rubic's, which she wasn't too upset about; after you've solved the 3X3, 4X4, and the 5X5 face cubes, plus the single-color-variable-sized cube, the no-look tactile cube, and the pyramid, it gets a bit old. Lyndi isn't into timing herself and constantly improving her Rubic's personal record like the geeks in the club, so she'd had enough.
The problem is, with Risa studying all the time and not in a club, living in a town far from home, and in a major where there are very few girls, she hasn't met many new friends. So it was natural that Lyndi and Risa would get to know each other, both being in the engineering/physics program. Lyndi asked Risa about her Seijin no Hi plans, and Risa said she didn't have any.
-What? What about getting a furisode and going out on the town?
-My parents don't want to pay for the furisode.
Times are hard and people are tightening their belts all over the world. I can sympathize with Risa's parents. They're footing the bill for tuition, books, housing, transportation, food and incidentals in a prefecture far away. They probably can't afford luxuries like super-expensive one-day kimono rentals, let alone the cost of a new one. But this is Seijin! Everyone celebrates Coming of Age! What's she going to say to her daughter one day when daughter says, “Show me pictures of your Seijin furisode, mommy!”
Lyndi told my wife about Risa's dilemma. Then my wife told my mother-in-law. Then mother-in-law told her sister down in Kyoto, which is of course the epicenter of traditional culture in Japan. You don’t not make a big deal out of Coming-of-Age day in Kyoto! As they say in Fiddler on the Roof: “Tradition!”
Sister said, “Not get dressed up for Seijin no Hi? We can't have that!”
And so they sent the brand-new kimono they had purchased for their own granddaughter, which she’ll be using later in the month, for Risa to use now. Risa came over to our house the day they celebrate Seijin in our town. My daughter gave Risa the Kyoto furisode and pulled out her old kimono and they both got dressed up and went downtown to go to the ceremony, take pictures at the best sites and have lunch together.
And now Risa has some photos to show her kids some day..
addendum: I was going to post a picture with the girls’ eyes blacked out.
I figured Risa and Lyndi didn’t want the publicity, but my daughter said it’s OK; she underestimates my huge, worldwide following here on substack.
-Hey Lyndi, do you mind if I use this picture for the blog?
-Please don’t do that 😂
We look like criminals. You can just use any picture, pops.
