issue 12

iJapanese Newsletter
1 s tInformation for2014

2 0 1 3

Christmas in Japan
Christmas is just around the corner and is a special day for Japanese people as well.
How do the Japanese celebrate Christmas, you may ask? What is Christmas like in Japan?

Term 113th Jan - 29th Mar( 11 weeks )Public Holiday Replacement
There will be no classes running on
public holidays.
Please see below for replacementclasses.
Monday class:27th Jan

10th Mar(Australia day)(Labor Day)

6th JanD e c e m b e r

31st Mar

Please confirm with your teacher for
Term 1 scheduling as time slots arelimited.

Boonenkai

The end of year BBQ

Many Western Christmas traditions havebeen adopted by the Japanese. Christmas
trees are placed in homes, gifts areexchanged and people enjoy having
Christmas parties.
In Japan, Christmas is known more of a timeto spread happiness rather than for its
religious celebration. There are several
typical Christmas customs and traditions
that take place in Japan. The maincelebration revolves around Christmas Eveand not Christmas day. The 25th ofDecember is not a public holiday, just astandard working day and children are atschool like any give day during the week.

composes ofchicken (notturkey or ham)and western stylefoods, such as
associatedcheese and roast
beef or pork, which they don’t normally eat
for everyday eating.

Most Japanese families would have a
Christmas tree (plastic not real) withdecorations and now it is becoming very
common to have lights on the outside of
their homes, as you commonly find in somewestern countries nowadays. Largebuildings, parks and stations are decorated
with colourful lights and Christmas trees infront of them.

Christmas Eve is also considered a veryromantic day, and couples go out andspend a romantic candle night dinner
together and exchange presents. Youngcouples like going for a walk to look at theplaces with Christmas lights.
Interesting enough a survey indicates that
70% of people spend Christmas with theirfamily at home during the Christmas time.
However, the best way to celebrate
Christmas is with their boyfriend or girlfriend
at a nice fancy restaurant, if they can afford
to do so.

Children believe Santa Claus will bringpresents so they hang up their stocking next
to their bed and go to sleep withexcitement. The next day, they wake up andfind a present of what they had wished for!

Christmas cakes are also popular. They’re
not your typical fruitcakes, but sponge cakewith frosted whipped cream, often
decorated with strawberries and with alittle Santa on top.

In Japanese Merry Christmas is ’メリークリ
スマス'( Meri Kurisumasu).

People prepare a fancy dinner that includes

Come and join us!

Christmas cake. A fancy Christmas dinner

Let’s chill out with
Aussie & Japanese style BBQ!
All students are welcome to bringfriends and family.

Date :
Time :
Place :Cost :メリークリスマス！
らいねん
来年もよろしくねがお願いします！

iJapanese Newsletter issue 12

Page 2 of 4Student from iJapanese
Mayur Deivasigamani sanHello Everyone,
My name is Mayur Deivasigamani and I
work as a Senior Engineer in Nissan
Motor Company Australia. I am
originally from India but I have now
been in Australia for more than 10 years. I have been to Japan
twice for work and at that time I did not know any Japanese. I
was very impressed with Japan for its advanced technology andfor preserving the traditional Japanese culture at the same time. I
found Japanese people to be very honest and helpful.
After my two trips to Japan without knowing any Japanese, I
decided to learn Japanese. As I am working for a Japanesecompany, I interact with a lot of Japanese people. So learning
Japanese will certainly be useful for my career. My wife, Supriya
was also interested in learning Japanese as she is a big Mangafan. So we joined iJapanese together and it is almost 2 years
since we started learning Japanese.

Both of us find Japanese language very interesting and we enjoy
every single class with Noriko san. What I like about iJapanese isthe way the class is conducted and how well the lessons arestructured. The classes are so interactive that the spoken
language improves very quickly.
I have started communicating in Japanese with the engineers inNissan Japan and this has made a huge difference to my working
relationship with them. They feel happy and appreciate when I
communicate with them in Japanese. I am eagerly waiting for mynext trip to Japan where I can practice all the Japanese that I
have learnt in these two years.
Finally, for all those who are studying at iJapanese, I would
recommend watching ‘Hanazawa Naoki’, a Japanese serial.
Totemo omoshiroi desu. It is about a person who joins a bankand how he manages to successfully work there in spite of theinternal politics in the bank.
MayurDagashi
How many lollies can you buy with ¥100, (that's about $1 Aussie) at a shop inJapan?
Have you heard about Japanese cheap sweets called ‘Dagashi’?
A little about the history of ‘Dagash’, it started around the Edo period, 1711 andbrown sugar or raw sugar was used to make them. ‘Dagashi’ means ‘cheapsweets’, whereas fancy sweets were called ‘Joogashi’ since white sugar wasn’t
used as it was deemed too expensive and valuable to be used for sweets.
After 1945 (shoowa 20 nen), dagashi became popular especially among children
due to the affordability of sweets. Every town had a dagashi-ya (traditional sweetsshop) where children could hang around with their friends. The lollies cost from ¥5to ¥10 and children enjoyed buying lollies whilst carefully considering their budget.

The oldest caramel(from Meiji in 1927)

The variety of sweets and colourful packing of famous sports players were attractive to children. Some sweets
have a lucky draw where you win a second sweet whilst others come with a small toy. Over the past few
decades dagashi-ya stores have gradually disappeared from Japanese streets and sadly the original conceptof ‘dagashi’ as well.
Today’s idea of buying dagashi is in large packaging, generally as you find lollies at supermarkets orconvenience stores such as Seven-Eleven, Family Mart and Lawson. Nevertheless, when you visit Japan next,
go visit a traditional Dagashi-ya Shop for “the most cheapest food” you will buy in Japan!!!

By Aya nowww.iJapanese.com.auPage 3 of 4What is Yuru-Kyara?
The yuru-kyara, short for yurui kyarakutaa, literally translated
to “loose characters.” A Yuru-Kyara’s typical characteristics is afull-body suit mascot. They are known for their cute featuresand designed to promote towns, prefectures or companies.
In the past, the characters were used to boost the atmosphereat events and sport games. However, these days they become
so popular in Japan that they have created their own fan clubs,
websites, facebook, twitter and even large conventions. SomeYoru-kyara can even talk!

The Grand Prix of Yuru-kyara has been held every year withover 800 characters participating. The winner of 2011 was
Kumamon (Kumamoto prefecture) with more than 300,000
followers on Twitter and 148,000 likes on facebook. Kumamonrelated products generated ¥29.3 billion (about $313 Million) in2012, which surpass Hiko-Nyan boom of ¥1.7 Billion (about$18 Million) in 2007.
Of all Japanese yuru-kyara ,myfavourite would have to be no otherthan “Domo Kun” created by theNHK (Japan BroadcastingCorporation). It’s a cute and furrybrown monster with its mouth
constantly open. Domo Kun enjoys
eating rice and moonlight walks,
although he hates apples!

In 2007, the character Hikonyan was created in Hikone city,
Shiga prefecture to celebrate the Hikone Castle's 400th
anniversary and the character was an immediate success. Since
then, cities and regions all around Japan began making theirown Yuru- kyara. The regional mascots have been quietly
promoting areas of tourism, local delicacies and events.
Yuru kyara represents aspects of the place in which they wherecreated from. For example a district with an airport might use acute little jet mascot, whereas a farming village might be
represented by a happy rabbit with leek ears. They have theirown personality such as favourite foods and hobbies.
Now, the mascots have become much more popular than theoriginal intent.

Doomo kun(NHK)

Chicchai Ossan(Amagasaki –shi)

By Phillip
Yuru Kyara Grand Prix in Nov 2013

Japan Facts
Japanese people take off their
shoes when entering the houseand change into slippers. They
have other slippers when using
toilette.

Japan Facts
The term‘Karaoke’ means‘empty orchestra’in Japanese.

Japanese Trains are among the world's most punctual.
The average delay on the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet
train is only 18 seconds and local train is 48 seconds.

Japan's birth rate is so lowthat adult diapers are soldmore than baby diapers.

A musk melon (cantaloupe) cansell for over $300 and a mango
can sell for $100.
(In 2010 a mango sold for$1,000)

In Japan there are more pets
than children.

www.iJapanese.com.au

Page 4 of 4

Japanese Technological Dunnies
The humble toilet is something we all use - every day of every week of every year. It goes by many names, including the loo, thedunny, the crapper and that’s just the polite ones!!
In my opinion, Japanese toilets have got to be one of the best
inventions ever to come from Japan. Toilets in Japan are
different than any other toilets that you are accustomed to.
The most popular of all is called ‘Washlet’. Anyone who has
been to Japan may know about it. It has more advanced
functions, including a bidet, blow dryer, seat heating, automatic
flushing and many other features. It was first released by TOTO
in 1980. It became so popular that now; a lot of families inJapan have a Washlet in their home.
Another type of popular toilet is called ‘Regio’, made by INAX
Corporation. It’s lid opens automatically, it plays relaxing music
while you are doing your business and it helps clean you
afterwards with a gentle jet of water.

Many Japanese struggle when they travel abroad as theycannot contemplate using any other types of toilet. They willfind it’s hard to find toilets like Washlet or Regio standards
anywhere, instead they will encounter many simple western
toilets.
If you are interested in purchasing one, it is not a bad idea.
Many foreigners, even famous celebrities have bought theseproducts. Being able to relax in a Japanese toilet is a great
feeling but be warned - if you become a custom to these
comfortable toilets you might realise it is difficult finding these ina bathroom especially in an emergency.

by Kisai

Noriko’s Thoughts
When I was writing the article for the front page, I researched

I must admit, there are lots of similarities between Hotei andabout Christmas in Japan using English websites. I wanted toSanta Claus. Their cheerful face, big belly and both carry a bigknow what fundamental aspects were interesting to foreigners

bag of goodies for children. Yet in spite of all intents andabout a Japanese Christmas.

purposes Japanese people have never thought of them as theWell…………… what I found made me laugh, till I was almost intears. It was also little shocking to find what foreigners perceive
about our Christmas.
The funniest story was that Japanese children believe in ‘Hotei’,
who is a one of Seven Gods of Luck for happiness, who brings
Christmas present.
As we know he is the laughing budda but some websites evengo so far as to say that Hotei is the Japanese Santa Claus.
Hotei won’t know
wether to “HA” or“HO” in Japan!

same person, we can clearly distinguish between Hotei andSanta.
The more shocking tale was that Japanese people all sit down
to KFC at Christmas time!
Not so accurate, the truth is KFC provides a special ‘Christmas
Chicken Set’ to take home. The strategic marketing campaign
has proven extremely successful with Japanese people as aneasy alternative to the traditional roastturkey.
Personally I have never seen people whocelebrate Christmas with KFC.

iJapanese Language & Culture School
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0401 886 629
Info@ijapanese.com.au