十月十三日（jyugatsu jyusan nichi）： October 13

Do you have a business card?
I have seen many different business cards today.
Japanese letters are written either from top to bottom (tategaki:　縦書き , vertical writing) which is from right to left or left to right (yokogaki:　横書き ,laterally writing) which is from top to bottom. Therefore business cards are either vertically longer or horizontally longer rectangle. These days many people use emails, therefore the latter one is more popular I think.
Usually people include the information such as names of person and organization they belong, title, address, telephone number, fax number, email address, website address and so on. If you belong to the company or organization, there are logo, motto, or special certified mark such as privacy mark and ISO mark.
Some have pictures of their own or landscape, others are simple black and white. If your job is related to foreign countries, usually backside is written in English.
I saw three different business cards of the Diet members. One was very simple, just title and name in Japanese only. The other was necessary information with a photo. Another was necessary information with a photo in the front and his personal history in the back. Which one do you like?

一月二十五日（ichigatsu nijyugonichi）： January 25

What nicknames do you have?
I have some nicknames. They depend on the people who call me or the depth of the relationship between me.
For example, yesterday I had a reunion of Expo'92 attendants. When I worked there, I was a graduate school student after working at a junior high school for several years. Therefore most of them called me "teacher(ティーチャー)." Some of them call me Kimiko-san, others call me Kitani-san. San (さん) means Miss, Ms., Mrs, or Mr. You can use this prefix for both men and women to address Japanese people politely.
My friends from high school call me Ham (ハム) because of my name. My name is written as 公子(Kimiko) in kanji character, and the first one is composed of two katakana character ハ(ha) and ム (mu). Therefore they call me Ham.
My friends from university and my cousins call me Kimi-chan. "Chan(ちゃん)" is usually used for small boys and girls. Regardless my age, they still call me Kimi-chan.

一月十九日（ichigatsu jyuku nichi）： January 19

What do you image hearing "Japan" or "Japanese"? What kind of Japanese culture can you think of?

Samurai, Fuji-yama, geisha? Economic animal? Tea ceremony and kimono? Judo, kendo, sumo? Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Anime and manga? Sushi and sukiyaki? Toyota, Honda, Nissan? Nintendo and Sony Play Station? Ichiro and Matusi?
There are so much Japanese culture and so many Japanese known to the world these days.

They say today is day of nodojiman (のど自慢),amateur singing contest or day of karaoke (カラオケ), sing-along machine.
Nodo (のど) means throat and jiman (自慢) means pride. On January 19, 1946 the first radio program of amateur singing contest started. There were 900 people applied and 30 of them participated. There is still a TV program of amateur singing contest by NHK at Sunday lunch time. The applicants are 12 times as many as the fixed number.
Since 1980s karaoke has been very popular in Japan and in 1990s to the world.
It is one of the contemporary well-known Japanese culture.
Do you like karaoke?

一月十日（ichigatsu toka）： January 10

January 10 is known as toka ebisu(十日戎). It is a festival of the shrines which enshrine one of the seven gods (七福神：shichi fuku jin) named Ebisu sama(恵比寿様). It is held in western Japan. People visit the shrines wishing for the prosperous business (商売繁盛：shobai hanjo). Usually the festival lasts for 3 days from 9th to 11th.

Today I went to see the musical "Casa Blanca" of Takarazuka kagekidan(宝塚歌劇団) for the first time after becoming an adult. The Takarazuka Revue is a Japanese all-female musical troupe based in the city of Takarazuka, Hyogo prefecture (兵庫県宝塚市). There are two theaters now, one is in Takarazuka, and the other is in Tokyo.
There are five troupes. Hana (花): Flower, Tsuki (月): Moon, Yuki (雪): Snow, Hoshi (星): Star, and Sora (宙): Cosmos. I watched the Cosmos Troupe.　
Since its first performance in 1914, there has been so many fans.
Kabuki (歌舞伎) is played by all men.

Today the January Grand Sumo Tournament (初場所:hatsu basho) started at Ryogoku kokugikan (両国国技館)in Tokyo.

名前（namae）： Name

How do you name children's name? In Japan we have kanji (漢字) characters which have meaning. Parents name their children's name by selecting a good combination of the kanji character, and making wishes on their names.
For example, my name Kimiko is written as 公子 in Japanese kanji character. Kimi (公) means public and ko (子) means child or girl. So my parents wanted me to be someone for the people. Girls name of our generation usually have ko at the end of the name.
Popular names are different depending on the era. In today's paper there are the ranking list of the popular names of babies who were born this year. Boy's No. 1 is Hiroto (大翔) and girl's No. 1 is Rin (凛). Hiroto has been No. 1 for 4 years in a row. There are three boy's names which have the same kanji character sho (翔) in top 10. Sho literally means to flap. Rin means handsome.
Popular names are influenced by the famous sports player or personalities. From next year there must be so many Ryo (遼) because of Ishikawa Ryo (石川遼), the youngest leading prizewinner golfer.

温泉（onsen）： Hot spring

Japan is a volcanic country and there are many hot springs (onsen, 温泉 )here and there. Japanese people love taking the hot springs.
When I was in the USA for the past two years, I missed the Japanese style bath very much, and I have wanted to go to hot springs when I got back.
The chance has come. I could go to Hakone on business trip yesterday and today, and I could enjoy the hot springs there.
I hope you will have a chance to try Japanese onsen someday.

風呂の日（furo no hi）： Day of Bath

Today is 26th which is read as 2 fu 6 ro in Japanese. Therefore in May 1985 Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. decide the 26th of every month as furo no hi (風呂の日), Day of Bath to deepen the relationship among the family to take a bath together.
The way of taking a bath in Japan is quite different from other countries. The room itself is different. There are a bathtub and a washing space. Before entering the bathtub where holds lots of hot water around 40 to 43 degrees centigrade, we clean ourselves first outside the bathtub. Then we soak in the hot water, get warm and relax.
There are many public baths called sento (銭湯：literally cash hot water). There used be many of them, but these days most homes have their own bath. People go there when they want to take a big bath or special baths like in a Jacuzzi or sauna.
Japan is a volcanic land with more than 2,700 onsen (温泉)hot spring resorts all over the country. Hot spring water is very good for treatment of chronic disease. We love hot springs very much.
I hope you have a chance to try Japanese hot spring someday.

ふくの日（fuku no hi）

Feb. 9 is written as 2.9 which is able to pronounce as 2(fu)9(ku). Therefore today is day of fu ku .
In Japanese there are three different alphabets of writing: hiragana(ひらがな）, katakana（カタカナ）, kanji（漢字）. Both hiragana and katakana are phonetic signs, and there are 46 letters each. Kanji is pictographic character imported from China. To read a newspaper, we need to know at least 2,000 kanji characters.
If it is written in hiragana as ふく, we are not sure what it is meant. But if we write them in kanji we know the meaning. Today's case fuku is 河豚(fugu). Fugu is a blowfish or globefish or swellfish or puffer fish. The most famous place of fugu in Japan is Shimonoseki, and there fugu is pronounced as fuku like 福（fortune）. Shimonoseki Fuku Renmei (Shimonoseki Blowfish Federation) decided Feb. 9 as Day of Fuku in 1980.
Fugu is very high-grade winter food. They have poison, so only special-licensed cooks are allowed to cook. They are expensive but very delicious.
If you come to Japan in winter time, please try.
Today is also day of 服 (fuku: clothes), day of 福（fuku: fortune）, and day of 風(kaze: wind) because it blows which is 吹く(fu ku: blow) in Japanese.

年賀状 (nenga jo) : New Year's Cards

Many people around the world send season's greeting cards around Christmas time. Japanese people send nenga jo (年賀状), New Year's Cards. If you post the cards by Christmas time, they will be delivered in the morning of New Year's Day called gan tan (元旦). This season's catch phrase for New Year's Cards was "I think nenga jo is a gift." I think so too.
By Christmas time last year 3,312,000,000 special post cards called nenga hagaki (年賀はがき)which have lottery numbers have been sold. In the morning of New Year's Day this year 2,089,000,000 cards were delivered.
Usually people write new year's greeting, their resolutions of the new year, or update of themselves. Some people use family pictures too. I love receiving new year's cards with individual messages.
Yesterday there was a drawing. Prizes are popular electrical appliances, domestic travel tickets, selective gourmet foods,and so on. The booby prize is a piece of stamp sheet.
I hope somebody I sent the card got a nice prize.

初釜 （hatsu gama）

Do you know anything about Japanese Tea Culture? The most famous tea master is Sen no Rikyu (千利休) who lived from 1522 to 1591. There are more than 400 years' traditions in cha no yu (茶の湯), tea ceremony.
There was hatsu gama (初釜), first tea ceremony of the year at my masters' house. I wore kimono and went to attend around 10:30 AM. It started at 11:00 AM and ended at 4:00 PM. There were 11 guests. There are many procedures and rules in tea ceremony.
After greeting, we washed our hands and rinsed our mouth at the outside stone basin and entered the main room. First was the charcoal procedure called sumi demae (炭点前), followed by thick tea procedure called koicha (濃茶).　Before koicha, we ate sweets called hanabira mochi (花びら餅), petal shaped soft rice cake, which is especially made for the first tea ceremony. Koicha is drunk by some people from the same bowl. After Koicha, there was a break and we had kaiseki (懐石) cuisine. Our master is from Kyoto, therefore we enjoyed special white miso taste zoni (雑煮) eaten in Kyoto area, too. After that there was a short break again to change the room decoration. Finally there was a thin tea procedure called usu cha (薄茶).　　At that time I was honored to be the main guest called shokyaku (正客).
I started learning the Omote senke (表千家) tea ceremony in the fall of 1988. For several years I have practiced every week, but after that I was not able to attend regular lessons, so I only joined these special occasions.
I am not good at sitting on my heels (seiza: 正座), but I like both serving tea and drinking tea.
Green tea is very good for your health. So please try!

大寒（dai kan）

It is dai kan (大寒), big cold today, which is one of the nijyushi sekki (二十四節気). The last one was sho kan (小寒), small cold on Jan. 5 and the next one is risshun (立春), the first day of spring on Feb. 4. So this is the coldest season now.
What do you use for heating in your country?
We use oil, gas, and electric heaters, but there is a very unique electrical appliance in Japan. It is called kotatsu (炬燵). It is a low table with an electric foot-warmer underneath, covered by a blanket and a futon or thick quilt. It is warm and comfortable, therefore once you enter the kotatsu , it is very hard to leave.
According to Wikipedia, there are similar things in Iran and Afghanistan, but I have never seen them by myself. I saw the similar table in Granada, Spain in the winter of 1993, but they used chairs too.
Since the latter half of 2007 hot water containers called yutampo (湯たんぽ)which was imported from China in the 14th century has been becoming popular again because of the jump in prices of oil.　

歌会始(uta kai hajime)

There was a new year's annual ceremony called uta kai hajime (歌会始)at the Imperial Palace yesterday. Uta kai hajime is the first meeting for making poems. This imperial household ceremony started in the 13th century, and general people were able to join since 1874. This year's theme was sei (生), life.
21,180 poems were made by general people, and 10 of them were selected. The youngest was 14 years old, and the oldest was 80 years old. Their poems were read out according to the traditional intonation and melody, followed by selectors', special guest's, imperial family members', crown princess', and crown prince's poem.
After that Empress' poem was read out twice, and finally Emperor's poem was read out for three times.

Emperor's
poem

There are many types of peoms in Japan, but this was so-called waka (和歌: Japanese poem) or tanka (短歌: short poem ）which consists of 5 units of go shichi go shichi shichi (5-7-5-7-7), 31 sound.
Next year's theme is hikari (光), light. 184 people from 26 countries applied this year. Why don't you try to make the one? The closing date is Sep. 30, 2009.

小正月(ko shogatsu)

Jan. 15 is known as ko shogatsu (小正月：small new year) compared to Jan. 1 as o shogatsu (大正月：big new year).
There was a custom to eat adzuki gayu (小豆粥：red bean rice porridge) in the morning.
There are events called sagicho (左義長) or donto yaki (どんと焼)　at ko shogatsu. They are a kind of fire festivals that some people bring the new year decorations (See photo) and burn them. With the smoke the Year God that visited at the New Year will go back to heaven. The heat is used to warm rice cakes, potatoes, dumplings at the top of a pole. Eating them is believed to avoid sickness during the year.

成人の日(seijin no hi) : Coming of Age Day

Today is a national holiday called seijin no hi (成人の日), Coming of Age Day. In Japan becoming 20 years old is considered to be adult who can vote, drink, and smoke.
This holiday was established in 1948 to celebrate and encourage those who became 20 years old. It had been celebrated on January 15 until 1999, but according to "Happy Monday System" seijin no hi has fallen on the second Monday of January since 2000.
This year about 1,330,000 (680,000-men, 650,000-women) new adults are celebrated in all Japan.
There is a ceremony called seijin shiki (成人式) which is held by each municipality. Usually women attend the ceremony wearing beautiful long-sleeved kimono called furisode (振袖) which is extremely expensive, and some men wearing the formal crested kimono called mon tsuki hakama (紋付袴) and others wearing their best suits.
This is the first year that those who are heisei umare (平成生まれ), those who were born in Heisei era became 20 years old.
Congratulations!

七草（nanakusa)

January 7 is known as the day of 七草（nanakusa: literally seven herbs). And there is a custom for Japanese people to eat 七草粥（nanakusa gayu: rice porridge with seven herbs) in the morning. If you eat 七草粥 on Jan. 7, it is believed that you won't get sick for the rest of the year. Seven herbs are セリ(seri: dropwort), ナズナ(nazuna: shepherd's purse),ゴギョウ(gogyo: cottonweed),ハコベラ(hakobera: chickweed),ホトケノザ(hotokenoza:henbit),スズナ(suzuna:turnip),スズシロ(suzushiro: Japanese radish). Eating 七草粥　is to rest the stomach and intestines after too much eating at New Year's and to provide green nourishment.
It was today of 20 years ago that the Showa Emperor passed away and that the new era called "平成（Heisei）" started.

小寒（shokan)

Many things like governmental offices and companies have started working today. Tokyo Stock Exchange opened with the customary ceremony called 大発会（daihakkai), and young ladies were wearing beautiful kimono called 振袖（furisode). Tsukiji Fish Market also started their first auction called 初せり（hatsuseri).
And the coldness also started. Besides Gregorian calendar, Japanese people use other calendars too. One of them is called 二十四節気（nijyushi sekki) which originated in China. One year is divided into 24 terms. And today is the day of 小寒（shokan: literally small cold) and 寒の入り（kan no iri) the start of coldness. It will be getting colder and colder until 大寒（daikan: literally big cold) which is the coldest time, and it falls on Jan. 20 this year.
So please take good care of yourselves not to get cold.

Happy New Year! 新年明けましておめでとうございます(shinnen akemashite omedeto gozaimasu)

In Japan New Year お正月(oshogatsu) is the biggest celebration in a year.
Before new year comes, we clean the whole house, decorate the gate and rooms with special ornaments, and prepare the special food called "おせち料理(osechi-ryori)" seasonal food.
We usually eat "お雑煮(ozoni)" rice cake soup and drink the spiced sake called "お屠蘇(otoso)."
Children look forward the new year because they will get money so-called "お年玉(otoshidama)."
We greet by saying "新年明けましておめでとうございます(shinnen akemashite omedeto gozaimasu)" which means "A Happy New Year!"