Becoming an "adult" in Japan and what I did as a "child"

January 11 is the day when you transition from a child to an adult in Japan. It's the day of dreams - when 20 year old school girls abandon their micro-skirts for super expensive/bright/flashy kimonos. Their hair is all permed/styled and colored, their obi knots are tied in beautiful patterns, their shoes are super polished - basically they (and by extension, their parents) go ALL out on at least looking the part of an adult. It's quite a beautiful sight to see so many elegant kimono-clad women wandering all over Tokyo - even if it's only a temporary beauty (most will go back to their mini-skirts tomorrow).


As for us guys...well, we get to wear a black vest and a tie. Yup. The lucky ones maybe get to wear a guys kimono - you know, the black things you see in the old samurai movies. What can I say, us guys just have dark personalities.

Anyways, since I did not get invited to any coming of age ceremonies (although I am 20, you have to turn 20 in the coming year to get invited.) me and my friend went around harajuku to see some of the ceremonies. THE place to have your coming of age ceremony performed has to be the Meiji-Jingu shrine is harajuku. It's basically the most famous shrine in Tokyo and whoever has their coming of age ceremony performed there must have some well-connected parents indeed! Anyways, people usually dress up in fancy kimonos and things for their coming of age right? Not in Meiji-jingu. The kids..er...adults there looked like they were coming back from afternoon tea with the emperor in the 16th century. The ceremonies involved putting on a hat and voila - instant adult (just add water). Since I have not properly been to a coming of age ceremony in Japan, does that mean I will forever be a child in Japan?

Well, anyways, after we saw the coming of age ceremony, we then walked around the shrine and checked out some of their ice sculptures (which were melting cause it's not that cold in tokyo). As we were walking around, I finally got my first glimpse of the Japanese environmentalists! There was a convention called "we love snow" next to the NHK (Japanese BBC) center where  (I presume) skiers and snowboarders gathered to tell each other about ho much they love fresh powder. They were dancing and singing and even a semi-famous group called the new classics came up to sing. The group consisted of 2 japanese guys and a black dude that did the "uhs, yeahs, ums" as well as the rapping lol. They were'nt bad. though! Afterwards, NHK museum where we saw some old shows, did some voice acting as well as some terrible sound inserts, hosted news cast etc. Then we randomly chanced by a karate tournament and watched that as well - so many random events. Anyways, our date ended with Omotesando hills, which was super ritzy, and I also ate 2 tempura-dons for dinner.

Completely pointless post - I hope to have more of them from now on ; ]

TQT