Author Archives: Ryusuke Kondo

Never Play a Flute in a midnight

Nationality: America
Age: 75
Residence: Little Tokyo
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: Japanese
Language: English

This is the belief from Japan that if someone plays flute midnight, it will bring snakes to house, therefore no one should play it during night time.

People in Japan do not really believe in this folk belief now but in the past, thieves used to whistle to gather other thieves to escape from police. Whistle was used as a sign to signal others, so this belief was actually true in the past. In order to bring thieves close to people’s house they should not play flute. Now playing a flute just causes troubles with neighbors so the belief is used as a different context.

Rest Room Ghost Hanako

Nationality: Japan
Age: 28
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: Japanese

The informant heard this ghost story when he was in the primary school, and could not go to the the rest room by himself for long time after hearing this story.

In an empty rest rooms, if some one enters and ask if some one is using the rest room, a ghost of Japanese girl, Hanako replies. He/she has to knock each door of the rest room three times to see if Hanako is there. If she replies back to you, you will see the girl in a white shirt and red skirt. She will do nothing harmful to others but if she is in a bad mood, sometimes she strangles people. It is believed that a girl who got killed by a pedophile at school could not go to heaven and still waiting for the guy who killed her to haunt, therefore she is not interested in harming children.

This is a very famous ghost story in Japan, and almost most of japanese kids were scared of this ghost. It became a horror comics, movies, and animation. it is unsure if kids in japan still believe this story but it was really popular in 90’s. SInce the ghost was not harmful to children, there were many kids trying to see Hanako to show their bravery in order to be popular in the class.

New Year’s Eve Dinner

Nationality: japanese
Age: 28
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: Japanese

This is informant’s family tradition’s dinner to eat Japanese noodle in soy sauce based soup on new year’s eve. On Dec 31, most of shops and restaurants are closed, so informant’s father makes noodle from flour and while he cooks, mother cleans up the whole house. Interestingly this is only day her father cooks dinner for everyone. Every year the noodle which father cooks does not taste good, therefore mother has to make pre-cooked noodle she bought from the shop is used after every family member eats a bite of father’s noodle. This tradition continues every year since the informant was little and no one really understands why father has to cook the noodle from scratch although he doesn’t know how to cook it. Father’s noodle has never tasted better and usually family members still eat noodles from the retail stores eventually.

 

Ultimate Japanse Breakfast

Nationality: japan
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: Japanese
Language: English

This is the Japanese breakfast that the informant eats before exams or any kinds of sports competitions which the informant participates.

Recipe

1 bowl of white rice

Dried See weeds

1 pack of Fermented Soy beans

1 chunk of Salted cod roes

1 egg

1/4 grilled salmon

 

All ingredients are put on the white rice, and it’s ready to eat. According to the informant, this is the quickest and best way to consume all nutritions together. This high carbo and protein are consumed especially when the informant expects to be busy. She does not eat this meal often everyday because the amount of food is too much to eat for breakfast.

She created this meal from leftover of last night’s dinner. Usually she eats these ingredients separately, but one morning,   she did not have anything to eat for breakfast and did not have time to cook eggs, therefore she just mixed all from leftover. Although the amount of food is a lot, the meal kept energizing her all day, and decided to eat on special occasions because she is constantly on diet.

Urashima Taro

Nationality: japan
Age: 28
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: Japanese
Language: English

Once upon a time, there was a fisher man called Urashima Taro. One day, he sees kids bullying a turtle on the beach. Taro feels sorry for the turtle, and tells kids to leave the turtle alone. After he saves the turtle, it comes to Taro and thanks him for saving. Turtle takes Taro to Ryugujyo (dragon’s castle)in the deep sea. Princess of the castle invites Taro and thanks him for saving the turtle. She throws a party that lasts for 7 days and eventually Taro falls in love with princess and marry. Taro lives with her under the sea for 3 years and decides to leave the castle temporarily to tell his parents about the life of Ryugujyo. When he leaves the castle, princess gives him Tamete bako (a squared shaped box) and tells him not to open the box. He goes back to the beach and visits his parent’s house but there was nothing where his house was supposed to be. Urashima Taro asks strangers where his parents are and the stranger tells him that they died almost 300 years ago. Taro sees his parents’ grave stone and finally realizes that the time spent in Ryugujyo was much slower. He gets depressed and feels hopeless because there is no one he knows. Depressed Taro opens Tamatebako to see if there are any clues. Once he opens the box, smoke comes out from the box and turns him to an old guy. Taro sees his old face through the reflection of sea and dies from shock.

 

This story is very difficult to interpret because it seems there is no meaning in the story. Taro who did right things by helping the bullied turtle eventually die from shock. However, there are alternate endings in some regions. Alternate endings such as Taro becomes a crane after opening tamatebako, or Taro tries to marry with another woman and dies after he opens Tamatebako haunted by Dragon princess. It could be interpreted that  Taro finally becomes a part of god after opening the box.