This day is for all who turned 20 years old last year (or recently this year), because 20 is the age of majority in Japan. It's basically a ceremony with many speeches from bigwigs who encourage the "new adults" (my bad translation) to continue to help and become good Japanese.
However, seijinshiki (the ceremony itself) is more known for the colorful furisode (long-sleeved kimono) the the new women wear--the colors and patterns along with their elaborately tied obi (the sash that holds the entire ensemble together) make them look like giant beautiful butterflies.
Unfortunately I do not have a furisode that fits me properly, so I wore Western clothes. I almost wish I hadn't gone. I stood out like a sore thumb--the only person in Western clothes, the only foreigner, the only one frantically tracing kanji in her electric dictionary as she tried to understand the brochure...
And then the actual ceremony started. But, it started with some middle school aged girl orchestra/band playing this:
I almost died containing my laughter.
Surprisingly, when we were asked to stand for the National Anthem and the City Anthem, no one actually sang, which surprised me. What also surprised me was how all the important speakers (the Mayor of the City, an important local businessman, etc.) were all video recordings.
But what surprised me the most was the reactions of everyone who was in the room along with me. I have noted before that Japanese women tend to flock, but before now, I have never equivocated them to starlings.
Now I do; during the entire ceremony, all the women were basically chatting to each other and completely ignoring what was going on before them. It was kinda distressing--I mean, this is a huge ceremony and most of the participants were flat-out ignoring what the city had been putting on for them. Basically, I was reminded of the chattering of starlings.
But, despite this, I feel it put on a good show--even if I felt like a crow in a flock of peacocks.
There were some girls in my dorm who did dress up:
They went to professionals to have their furisode done--but they did the hair themselves!
Also, I have finally finished my SUPAH SEKRET CRAFTY PROJECT
Here it is!
Who is he?
He's a plushie of a character from one of my favorite movies: How to Train Your Dragon.
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