Coming of Age- Seijin Shiki --- Nao

How are ya guys? How was your three day weekend? Hope it was gooood!
Today, I’m gonna talk about “Coming of Age” day in Japan. We say “Seijin Shiki”, which means ceremony for adults. We used to celebrate Seijin Shiki on Jan. 15th, but they decided to change the date to the second Monday, so that we can have 3 day weekend! Isn’t it really sweet?

Seijin Shiki is for those who have turned 20 years old, which is considered an adult in Japan.

So, what do we do on the Seijin Shiki? We gather at a City Hall, a stadium, or wherever the city you live in decides to have this ceremony. Girls usually wear “Kimono”, which is a traditional Japanese outfit, and guys wear either suits or “Hakama”, kimono for guys. So, if you are at the ceremony, you’ll be amazed how 20 year old Japanese girls and guys dress up. The girls’ Kimono are very colorful and beautiful, but keep in mind, the Kimono is super complicated to wear, so all the girls have to go to places where a professional Kimono dresser works at in order to wear the Kimono properly.

Anyway, all the girls and guys gather at a City Hall, and they have to listen to a Mayor’s congratulations speech and all other “important” people’s speeches. Fun, right? :-p

Well, the fun part comes in after the ceremony. We go to elementary school and junior high school with the same people, and when we go to high school, people go to different high schools within the school district depending on their intelligence. Yeah, it is a competitive part of Japanese education, but anyhow, we all go different ways after junior high school. We have to say good bye to all these fellow students who we spent more than the past 10 years with. So, this Seijin Shiki is a great time to have a reunion! And yes, we do have a reunion after the ceremony. You can meet with your former classmates after like 5 years? Oh boy, do they really change in 5 years! At 20 years old, one can legally drink in Japan, so you know how it goes with alcohol. What happens at the reunion is that many former classmates become couples during/ after the reunion! Some of them do get married. I know a couple of my classmates went through this “tradition”, and got married happily ever after… haha

Anyway, if you ever have a chance to go to Japan in January, you should schedule your trip to make sure you’ll be in town on the second Monday. You’ll see quite an interesting sight there. Girls look most definitely beautiful! I wish I could wear Kimono everyday, but it is close to impossible… all the layers of kimono… just pain in the butt… haha

Girls, keep looking good!
Hugs,
Nao