The Tokyo Color Run - March 15, 2014

This past Saturday I ran my first race in a very long while. It was the Tokyo color run, which is in fact, not a race. Beforehand I was worried about being able to run the distance at any sort of speed. I was worried about embarrassing myself. It turns out all my worrying was for naught. I'll get to that later.

The color run is a fun run with two rules:

1. Start the race wearing white

2. Finish the race covered in color

I did just that:

It's a really bad picture, but I was clean before I started.

Then I ran the race. We didn't actually start at the start line, because we didn't get there in time. Instead, we joined in about 100 m later. 

The first colour station we reached was blue. Before we got there I had fun stag leaping and cart wheeling my way. I also did some running. Most people were just walking.

At the blue station, I twirled around and got blue everywhere, including in my mouth. Bleh.

By this time a group of us had broken away from the original group, they were too slow for us. I wanted to stay together, but it was difficult to do so.

The next colour station was yellow. On our my way down to the yellow station, I was running and slapping high fives the whole way. It was really fun. And very un-Japanese. Why do I say that? Usually everyone is really quiet and they stay in their own little worlds. There is no talking, yelling at or touching strangers, at least not without a healthy dose of alcohol. But the color run is fun, and it brought out the fun in others :)

After yellow, the next colour station was green. I think this was a very poor colour selection. Blue + yellow = green and the next colour station was green. After green, I was decidedly green.

The final colour station, right before the finish, was pink! My favourite! I think it was a great way to end the race. I would have preferred purple or red, but I was just happy to get colourful. After the pink station, we raced to the end. It was really fun. 

At the finish line they gave us wet wipes, water and more colour powder! I wondered about the colour powder, but then I realized there was pretty much a rave going on past the finish line. There was a stage set up, a DJ playing dub step music and hundreds of people dancing/jumping. The music would build up and build up and then finally explode and everyone would cheer, start jumping, and throwing their colour powder into the air. It was amazing to see. 

After the dancing I was incredibly colourful. It was gross, and everything was kind of melting together and turning green. So, rule 2? I followed it to a T.

You can see the colour in my teeth!

Surprisingly, a lot of Japanese people asked to take photos with us. I looked like a monster, maybe that's why.

So why didn't I have to worry? Well hardly anyone ran, and the people I ran with were not faster than me. And I'm faster than I was before. Maybe thanks to futsal. And of course, most importantly it was a fun run, so there were no time chips or race clocks. Also, cheating was allowed and many people cut corners or hopped fences.

It was fun, but transportation was poorly organized. They didn't organize any shuttles and recommended taking a taxi to the running place as a viable option... Sigh. I wouldn't do it again, but I had fun doing it this time.

White Day - The Sequel to Valentine's Day

So White Day has come and gone. It was March 14, and it occurs exactly one month after Valentine's Day. White Day was a new concept for me, as we don't have it in North America. This year marks my second White Day in Japan, and it was basically the same as last year.

The very next day after Valentine's Day, White Day ads go up in stores. Where Valentine's Day colours are red and white, White Day colours seem to be largely white (go figure...), with accents of blue. This "holiday" was invented in 1978 by the National Confectionary Industry Association, who recognized a retail opportunity. Not wanting to leave the Valentine's gifts from women to men unreturned, they saw a need to found White Day. This need is based on the notion of "giri", or duty. It seems that it is impossible to just give a gift in Japan, it will always be returned, somehow, some way. When you just "give a gift", the recipient makes a mental note of it, and will very likely attempt to pay you back in the near future, with a gift of equal or greater value. This aspect of the culture is hard to get used to for someone like me, who just likes to give gifts. I hesitate to do it now, because I know the other person will feel obligated (probably obligated x 10, because I'm foreign!) to return the gift. Any way, Valentine's Day/White Day is a perfect example of this. On Valentine's Day, giri choco (duty chocolate) is given from girls to boys, and then on White Day, those boys have to return the favour in form of sweet confections. In addition, it's expected that the boy gives a nicer chocolate in return. This is the rule of sanbai gaeshi, a rule that dictates the return gift on White Day should be worth 2-3 times the value of the original gift.

So as you can see, the candy makers have capitalized on the social obligation the Japanese have to always return a gift. This day is so pointless it makes me laugh. It is clearly not as popular as Valentine's Day, because the target of the ads are all male, so there are no "make your own candy" supplies and all the White Day gifts come pre-wrapped. There is no genuine feeling here, just obligation. Sigh.

That being said, this day can also be the start of a new love. A boy in love may make his move on White Day. On Valentine's Day, a girl might've let it be known that she is interested in a special boy by giving him honmei choco. If this boy is really shy, he might wait the whole month to show his interest by returning the gift to the girl. Crazy right? I don't know how often this really happens, or if it is just legend, but it still amazes me. Also on this day, a boy might declare his feelings with chocolate for a girl. This is what all my students hope for, secretly. Again, I'm not really sure how often this happens in real life.

White Day is celebrated in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. In Korea, they also have black day, April 14, where single people get together and eat white noodles with black bean sauce. The people who celebrate black day, are the people who did not receive or give any chocolates on White Day or Valentine's Day. To my knowledge, there is no equivalent day in Japan, although I wouldn't doubt that it could be become popular in the future.

At a girls' school, White Day isn't really a big thing, for one thing, it falls at the end of the school year. So students may not be at school or they are busy studying for final exams. The other big reason is that there are no boys. The students mainly exchange chocolates with their friends and teachers. If the students are lucky, their male teachers may return the chocolate gifts to the students. At my school it seems to depend on the teacher, some of the guys have nothing to do with it, whereas others are good sports about it. Naturally, I don't expect much action on White Day. In fact, this year I forgot it was White Day until I received some chocolates from teachers. On Valentine's Day, the other ALT and I spread lots of Valentine's love by passing out chocolate kisses to students and all the teachers. So, on White Day, some of the teachers returned the favour. I received things from our school nurses, a few English teachers and two Japanese teachers. I was very surprised. I ended up with a surprisingly big White Day haul.

But still no honmei chocolate. No love declarations for me. Sigh. Maybe next year?

Happy Girls' Day!

Today, March 3, is Girls' Day, or Hina Matsuri (doll festival), in Japan. This day is not a national holiday (why not??), but it is commonly celebrated by all families with girls. 

About a month before Hina Matsuri, families with girls begin to display their Hina Ningyō (a set of dolls) in the genkan (front hall of their home) or front windows. The dolls represent the emperor, the empress, their attendants and the court musicians, all dressed in traditional Heian period costumes. This tradition started in the Heian era, after all. It was traditionally believed that dolls could capture and contain bad spirits. In the old days, straw Hina Ningyō were sailed down a river and out to sea, taking the bad spirits with them. 

This is a very traditional and fancy set of Hina Ningyō. Tiny sets of these dolls usually cost over $150, the set in the picture would be worth thousands. So most homes don't have an extravagant setup, unless they are rich.

As with all Japanese events, there is a seasonal drink and food associated with the festival. The drink of Hina matsuri is shirozake, a sweet low alcohol drink made from fermented rice. 

This is shirozake, in peach flavour (momo), the flavour of Hina matsuri. The blossom attached to the picture is a peach blossom. 

There are lots of snacks associated with Hina matsuri. Usually parents will buy their daughters some special girly-looking snacks and they will eat a special dinner. 

One snack is arare, little ball-shaped rice crackers flavoured with soy sauce, or (especially for Hina matsuri) sugar in white, green, and pink. The colourful sweet arare are special for Hina matsuri. 

Another Hina matsuri snack is sweetened rice cakes, layered and cut into a diamond shape. They are called hishimochi.

Depending on the region, they may have more layers and different colours. Here in Kantō, hishimochi have 3 layers, with pink, white, and green layers from top to bottom.

There are other snacks, usually in the same colour theme, or the peach theme. The main course for a Hina matsuri dinner is chirashizushi. Chirashizushi means scattered sushi, and it is a bowl of sushi rice topped with sushi fillings of various raw fish and vegetables. 

I think in these modern times, families also eat a sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberries (this is the go to cake for any event: birthday, Christmas, hina matsuri, etc).

As I said before, the dolls are displayed for about a month before hina matsuri. If they are not taken down on March 4, the day after, the daughter will either have a late marriage or never get married at all. Serious consequences...

Around this time, stores display their Hina  Ningyō, and some stores have very fancy sets of dolls. So it is interesting to see them everywhere. Come tomorrow though, they'll all be gone :(