Coming of Age Day

Today is a holiday in Japan. It's the "seijin no hi", or Coming of Age day. On this day 20 year olds attend "seijinshiki" (Coming of Age ceremony).

Clothing is "semi-Japanese formal clothing" (I really can't think on other way to define it) - women wearing kimonos, men with either kimonos or suits, and as a Japanese defined, on this day they "listen to a speech from some important people and party together". Each city has some different events (not obligatory), some I saw on TV were a show at Tokyo Disneyland, some shows performed by 20 year olds, rising a big kite and swimming and writing "shodo" (under a 6 degrees Celsius temperature...). Although 18 is the age of some "adult" things, like driver's license, only when 20 Japanese are considered "full adults". The legal right to drink and smoke comes at that age (I said legal)... so the party may include some drinking.

The holiday and ceremony started in 1946 as a way to give hope to the youngsters after the World War II.

Ok, so I saw more people wearing kimonos today than during New Year (I thought more Japanese would go that way to shrines on January 1st). But sorry, no pictures. I was attending a New Year Meeting ("shinnenkai") with some people from the university aikido club at the dojo of the sensei who also teaches at the uni on Saturdays (the other practices are held by a senpai).

There, people from children to elderly performed some enbu... Seeing kids together at a dojo reminded me of my judo dojo in Brazil... (reading this and some of my previous posts makes me wonder if I have a kids and girls in kimono crush...) After that a nice lunch and lots of chat...

This post is a little vague... maybe because I'm trying to study for a test I have tomorrow at the same time I'm writing... Guess I should resume studying. Before that just a final note: one girl mentioned that those kimonos don't protect enough against cold... So I'm wondering if some Japanese women are insensible to low temperatures. At night with the temperature around 2 degrees Celsius and some girls still wearing those clothes...