When everyone arrives, have them help pull the two halves together and join the two ends, then invite two famous kings from Okinawa’s past to come back from the dead and issue challenges to each other. Have a lot of other folks dressed in period costumes dance around and shout then throw in a few karate demonstrations just for show. When all that is finished, give a signal and have everyone pull with all their might.

What you have is a “Tsunahiki,” or great tug-o-war. This little celebration has been an indispensable facet of the autumnal season here in Okinawa for centuries. Many of the surrounding cities and towns hold their own Tsunahiki but no one can even come close to the grandeur of the Naha tug-o-war celebration which is the biggest in the whole world

Each year the great Tsunahiki in Naha has Guinness Record Book implications. It seems that somehow, each year they find a way to add a little more to length and weight to the rope and each year it seems they’re able to cram a few thousand more people into a few city blocks.

The giant rope has a whole crew of workers dedicated to its manufacture and it takes them more than a month to assemble it. The night before the appointed day, the rope is trucked to the Kumoji intersection of highway 58, nearest to Kokusai Street and the Prefectural Office Building. Here the highway has a Northeast to Southwest orientation.

The ropes are looped at the ends nearest the center with the East end representing male and the West representing female. The participants (everyone) pull the ends of the rope toward the center where the female end is looped over the male end and they are locked together by a ten foot long wooden peg.

Once this is accomplished the signal is given, a large golden ball elevated above the intersection is opened showering everyone below in confetti and the struggle begins. The rules are simple, which ever side pulls the rope a distance of three meters (roughly ten feet) within the allotted time wins. If neither side is able to accomplish the goal within thirty minutes, the contest is declared a draw.

Once it’s finished everyone regardless of which side they were on celebrates and people cut off sections of rope to take home with them. This is believed to bring them good luck for the rest of the year. Here on Okinawa, regardless the outcome, the Tsunahiki is just a great excuse to bring everyone together and have a great time!

Summer is about one thing – heat. You can choose to fight it, or embrace it like a lover. I’m a lover of everything summer, so when the sun is out, so am I, at the BBQ. Japanese love the grill as much as anybody, so I invite as many friends as I can and head for one of the thirteen areas I can host a BBQ. Being an Izumisano boy, I like to grill a few burgers at Rinku Town Park, where you can BBQ without fees or reservations.

Rinku Town Park

Rinku Town Park was completed in the last couple of years and features all-new facilities, a walking path, grassy areas, and fantastic night scenery. The BBQ area has four tables and several pits to pitch your hot coals after a good day of grilling, as well as washing/prep areas and bathrooms a few footsteps away.

Japanese BBQ

If you’ve never had Japanese-style BBQ before, you might be surprised by what goes on the grill. Some surprises for me were:

Cabbage – Really?

Pumpkin – I like my pumpkin in pies, thanks.

Liver – I’ll stick to the white meat.

Tiny sausages – Ever heard of a hotdog?

Regardless, anything becomes delicious after it’s dipped in tare, so don’t forget yours!

Western BBQ

Still want a taste of home? Find your local import foods store! I always pick up some tortillas, refried beans, and hot sauce. But I make the guacamole myself.

Happy grilling!

]]> http://blog.gaijinpot.com/food-and-drink/the-osaka-bbq-guide/2778/feed/ 0 http://blog.gaijinpot.com/holidays-celebrations/seimei-it%e2%80%99s-like-obon-on-steroids/1618/ http://blog.gaijinpot.com/holidays-celebrations/seimei-it%e2%80%99s-like-obon-on-steroids/1618/#comments Sun, 12 Apr 2009 22:31:03 +0000 Keith Graff http://blog.gaijinpot.com/?p=1618 The people of Okinawa don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter or many of the religious holidays many westerners are familiar with. But they do have plenty of their own special holidays and traditions to speak of. They even have one or two that are not celebrated elsewhere in Japan. One holiday in particular that is celebrated throughout the month of April is called Seimei. Pronounced “She Me” in the local dialect, it’s a gathering of all the family that is rich with ritual and tradition that goes back for hundreds of years.

Of all the rituals associated with Seimei, perhaps the one that is most important and seems the strangest to westerners is where the clan gathers to celebrate. This picnic like gathering seems for the most part to be normal enough except for its location. You need only remember that it’s a time of family and remembrance to bring a sense of normality to it. In Japan, the family is very high in order of importance. In Okinawa, it’s first and foremost. That is why a picnic like celebration at the family crypt is suddenly not so strange or out of the ordinary.

The practice goes back to Taoist traditions imported from China centuries ago. A lot of preparations go into holding a successful celebration. Because these day’s families are further extended geographically than in times past and because attendance is practically mandatory, some creative scheduling has to be done to insure that everyone can attend. Also, traditional foods must be prepared as well as the offerings to the ancestors.

On the day of the big event and everyone arrives at the family crypt, the area must be cleaned of weeds and debris. The offerings are arranged before the altar and incense is burned. The incense used is a special kind that consists of three individual sticks that are fused together. One stick of three is burned for every living member of the household to include those related by marriage. Lastly, paper representing money is burned and offered to the ancestors. I guess that’s because they don’t take credit cards in heaven.

After all the offerings are made to the ancestors and the incense is finally burned away, the family begins to feast. Traditional foods such as tempura, gobo root, daikon radish Kamabokko (fish cake) and San-mai-nikku (pork belly) are consumed. For dessert, mochi is on the menu. The whole ceremony lasts only an hour or two. Add a few adult libations and the traditional swapping of lies and it can go on all afternoon.

Afterward, most folks will usually adjourn to the head of the clan’s home where the feasting and fellowship will continue well into the evening hours. Add a little more beer or sake and it may go on through to the next morning. That’s all well and good provided you don’t have to work the next day. But in Okinawa, allowances are made for this because Seimei is such an important part of the culture.

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First of all, both the Irish and the Okinawan’s are island peoples and both have had a portion of their territories forcibly taken from them. The British took Northern Ireland and these days, the Amami island group, once part of the Ryukyu Kingdom, what Okinawa was once known as, is now a part of Kagoshima prefecture.

Both peoples have a reputation for being a fun loving lot and both possess a fondness for strong drink. In Ireland they have their world famous whiskey of which it’s been said “God created to keep them from conquering the world.” Here in Okinawa they have their Awamori Sake which tastes more like a whiskey than your typical Nihon-Shu.

The Irish also have a reputation for loving a good scrap. Go ahead and rent the Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman movie “Far and Away” or the John Wayne classic “The Quiet man” if you need a refresher. They also have a long history of champion boxers going all the way back to the great John L. Sullivan. Okinawa has a peace loving reputation but surprisingly, they’ve also had more than their fair share of famous boxers to include the legendary WBA Junior Fly Weight World Champion Yoko Gushiken.

Both places have had problems with snakes. Okinawa has its infamous Habu which unlike many other venomous snakes can strike a victim from 360 degrees. Ireland fortunately had its snake problem resolved centuries ago by St. Patrick. Okinawa doesn’t have any saints to speak of so they imported the Mongoose from India. It was a great idea till someone realized that Mongoose are daytime animals and Habu’s are nocturnal. Okay, advantage Irish.

Both islands have a rich folklore dominated by mythical “little people.” Ireland has the Leprechauns and Okinawa, Kijimuna. Both are said to be endowed with magical powers that can either bring you good luck or great misfortune. So if you happen to encounter one or the other it’s probably a good idea to be nice.

Another similarity is the disproportionate number of family names that begin with the letter “O.” In Ireland you the O’Malley’s, the O’Reilly’s, the O’Hara’s, the O’Connor’s and the list goes on. Similarly, Okinawa also has the Ohara’s, as well as the Omine’s, the Oshiro’s, the Ota’s and so on.

Lastly both are well represented in the entertainment world. There are untold numbers of renowned entertainers with Irish lineage along with Enya and super-group U2 still on the charts. Okinawa has musical talents like Begin, Kiroro and Amuro Namie. Other notables include popular comedian and actor Gori as well as actress/super-models Yu Yamada and Kuroki Meisa. Of course who could forget actress Nakama Yukie who it seems appears in every single television commercial there is and whose image is plastered across every billboard in Japan.

I could go on and on listing untold numbers of similarities between them. Perhaps enough to give conspiracy theorists enough fodder to write a few hundred books on the subject. That would be a nice change of pace. After all, standard fare like Big Foot, Roswell and JFK is getting a bit old, don’t you think? Regardless, lets all have a round of cheer it for the Irish and their Okinawans kinsmen this St. Patrick’s Day.

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Hina Matsuri is said to originally come from an old Chinese tradition of transferring your bad luck to a doll and floating the doll down the river.  In Japan, the tradition eventually became the celebration for young girls that it is today.  Families with young girls set out beautiful, expensive hina doll sets like the one in the picture, which represent the royal family. The girls get to eat special sweets and snacks and drink amazake, or “sweet sake”, which is made from rice malt instead of alcohol.

Even if you are not a little girl anymore, you can still enjoy this yearly event, which celebrates being a female. On March 2, Meiji Shrine will hold a festival for Hina Matsuri.  If you check with shrines in your area, they might be holding some kind of activities as well!

photo credit: mick62

Most people who come to Japan know about Setsubun, the bean-throwing holiday which comes on the 3^rd of February, but most of them do not know about another very special tradition that only happens in Osaka during the same time. Well, if you haven’t already guessed from the title, it’s Japanese Halloween. On the 2^nd and 3^rd of every February, everything from Snow White to sexy nurses to Geisha costumes can be seen after dark on the brightly lit streets of Kitashinchi in Umeda. If one is unaware of this tradition which is only celebrated in Osaka, one might be very confused if “accidentally” stumbling into Kitashinchi after dark. Much like Halloween, wearing “scary” costumes during this time is meant to ward off evil spirits.

Another interesting and fun part of this holiday is that some costumed men, wearing oni (demon or ogre) masks, go around scaring everyone by sneaking up on them from behind and shouting “aaarrgghh” loudly into their ears. Some of these men are actually hired by the owners of many bars, restaurants, and clubs to go in and scare the customers. This is a way to “scare the living demons” out of people. In addition, while the men in demon masks set to the task of scaring people, an older man usually accompanies them, and plays music out of a conch shell (he’s usually standing somewhere in the background). After everyone is properly shocked, the men in demon masks throw a few handfuls of roasted soybeans, shouting, “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” which translates as “Demon’s out! Luck in!” It is also a custom to eat the roasted soybeans (yes, the ones that have been on the floor), one for each year of your life and sometimes, one more to bring good luck in the future.

Another significant tradition during this time to eat uncut maki-zushi (basically a very big sushi roll usually containing egg and vegetables) while facing in a particular direction. This year it was North-East. One more thing, you can’t talk while eating it. So, if you manage to face in the right direction and silently eat your large sushi roll, you should be lucky for the next year.

And for those of you who thought that Osakans didn’t celebrate Halloween, guess again.

photo credit: sor

“Setsu-bun” according to Wikipedia is the day before the beginning of each season. The name literally means “seasonal division”, but usually the term refers to the spring Setsubun.

One of the great things about living with your Japanese in-laws, in that you get to experience the national holidays in the flesh.

It’s February third,  and I’m pretty sure I was not the only one throwing soybeans out the door screaming to keep the demons away and bringing in good fortune and health.

On T.V, the undefeated Sumo champion Asashoryu, dressed in pink, was doing the same.

I was not dressed in pink,  but was wearing my fashionable fundoshi. A fundoshi is the traditional Japanese male underwear used until around the time of WWII, after the western influence in fashion took over it stopped being the norm,  but it happened to be the underwear of choice for Kimono and Yukata and at some point a variation of it was also used as swimwear.

Popular Japanese comedian Tamura Kenji (Known as Tamu-Ken) often sports one as part of his gag as he dances with a Chinese dragon puppet. I must admit  I am a big fan of Tamu-Ken, but my reasons for wearing a fundoshi reach deeper beyond my admiration for said comedian. Let me just say that if you have ever trained for a marathon you might understand the need for a soft, loose cotton underwear fashion.

As I wore with pride my fundoshi, I also got to eat a big, long, fat roll of sushi. It’s tradition to face the proper lucky direction (it changes every year according to the corresponding zodiac animal) and supposedly eat the whole thing in one bite. Ha! Good luck…

Outside the house,  a sardine head stabbed on a little toothpick stood impaled looking ominously at all the demons and bad fortune, scaring them away. “Well, let’s just hope it doesn’t attract any cats”,Mom said, as she placed the fishy item by the entrance.

I’m not a fashion expert but I can safely predict that fundoshi will come back in a big way this year. Mom is already planning to make me a whole collection in different colors.

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