Shichi-go-san

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: Shichi-Go-San

...As a Hawai'i-born Japanese guy, I have *never* done this. Nobody in my family does it, either. But I thought it was interesting that all the kids and parents interviewed in the article appeared to be from hapa marriages. I wonder if the fact that the kids aren't 100% Japanese gives the parents more of an urge to involve them in traditional Japanese things like this?...[/I]

I find the cultural things happening with the Japanese youth pretty curious. Lots of hybridization going around, and the looks and scene are almost living anime. Once someone said that you can tell the local Japanese men from the Japanese men because the locals look normal and the Japanese wax their eyebrows into funky arches, obsess about nonsensical stuff like "arm hair" and generally try to look like Dragonball Z characters.

Combine that with a low national birthrate, and I won't be surprised if a "neo-bushiddo warrior" scene happens in a generation or two, deriding their Hello Kitty/Deisel jeans-wearing parents.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Shichi-go-san

Oh it's so funny to see these Japanese Nationals (young men) trying so hard to look like James Dean with the rolled up sleeve and the pack of smokes tucked inside...I dunno just doesn't seem right to me.

Kinda like skinny caucasians sporting those warrior armband tatoos. To me that's like Pee Wee Herman wearing a "Hell's Angels" leather jacket...Eh...it just doesn't look right.

[na alii]

Re: Shichi-go-san

I only seen the Shichi Go San in Japan when I used to live there when my father was stationed in Japan. For a field trip in the third grade we went to Meiji Shrine for the Shichi Go San and then recently in 2003 I went to Japan and again went to Meiji Shrine and seen the Shichi Go San ceremony.

[Maka]

Re: Shichi-Go-San

> As a Hawai'i-born Japanese guy, I have *never* done this. Nobody in my
> family does it, either.

Did both your parents move to Hawaii as adults?

> But I thought it was interesting that all the kids and parents interviewed in
> the article appeared to be from hapa marriages.

We took our daughter (three) to Konpira-san this year, but that was my (Japan born and raised) wife's idea, and we went with other couples who are non-hapa.

> I wonder if the fact that the kids aren't 100% Japanese gives the parents
> more of an urge to involve them in traditional Japanese things like this?

Actually, I think it's the opposite. When Japanese people move here and have kids, they first of all don't have the grandparents around to urge them to do these things, which is the way it often is in Japan. The other thing is that if they have decided to put down roots here, they generally leave behind this kind of tradition in an effort to "Americanize." These are generally the type of immigrants who don't t teach their children their (=the parents') native language.

On the other hand, 十人十色, or different strokes for different folks, and that applies to all the varieties (from yonsei to just-off-the-plane) Japanese living in Hawaii, which makes it particularly difficult to extrapolate from personal experience in the area of cultural assimilation, which is by definition characterized by being in flux.