This Is Why I Love Living in Japan

This Is Why I Love Living in Japan

If ever one day perfectly encapsulated the reasons I’ve lived in Japan for 15 years, this was it. From kindness, to kimonos, kids, and ancient culture, these images tell the story of why I love living in Japan.

When you take a look around different lists of the most popular global tourist destinations, Japan almost always ranks pretty highly, and for good reason. World-class skiing in the north, tropical beaches in the south, volcanoes, bears, monkeys, mythical mountains, and thousands of years of tradition mean that there’s literally something for every kind of tourist. But having lived here for a third of my life and taken permanent residency, there are smaller things that permeate everyday life and customs that fascinate me more than the obvious, illustrious icons that draw others in.

Last week, my eldest daughter celebrated becoming three years old. Every child (boy and girl) in Japan does this. It’s called "shichi, go, san" or literally, in English, "seven, five, three," and is celebrated as a thank you to the gods for allowing your child to reach three years old and to ask for future goodwill. The girls do it again at seven and the boys again at five. It’s a very important event and as such, formal dress is required. That means kimonos for the girls and mothers, hakamas for the little boys, and suits for the fathers. So, I want to share some photos from this special day and use them to explain some nuances of Japanese culture you might not be aware of, and which show sublimely exactly why I love this country and its culture. 

So, to the big day. In this first image here, you can see my wife walking alongside a helpful, old man, whom we politely refer to as “ojisan.” But there’s more to this than a simple juxtaposition of traditional and modern fashion. What’s interesting and heartwarming here is that "ojisan" volunteered to walk our pram and two daughters to the shrine for us. We had taken refuge in a shop he was staffing, because the rain was pelting down and we didn’t want to go the shrine in such a downpour. In passing conversation, my wife told him about my broken ribs that I was sporting (and still am). No sooner had she said that he insisted on walking the pram to the shrine. My wife refused, as is Japanese custom, but he insisted. As he is older, my wife deferred and respected his decision. So, he braved the rain and started pushing the pram, allowing me to take photos from behind.

This is a perfect example of the willingness in Japanese culture to put other people or the group before yourself. Many Westerners mistake this for a lack of individuality. This is not quite true. It’s simply that in Japan, you almost always put others first, whether it’s in a traffic jam, a group decision, giving (and showing) someone directions, or in any other form of help. If you ask 100 random people to offer a single word to describe the Japanese, “polite” will almost certainly be towards the top of the list. There’s a reason for that: it's ingrained in them from a young age to be helpful when and if they can.

This is further exemplified perfectly by the blue jacket that “ojisan” is wearing in these images. When he volunteered to push the pram, there was one big problem: he didn’t have an umbrella. Immediately upon hearing that, my wife insisted he use my raincoat. After all, I was walking behind with my umbrella and camera, so I didn’t need it. So we had “ojisan,” who we’d met 5 minutes prior, pushing my daughters to the shrine in the rain, wearing my raincoat my wife had insisted he wear to keep dry. And then, the entire time we walked, my wife tried as best she could to cover him with her umbrella as much as possible, despite having to walk in her "zori" sandals. I had to marvel at this as I stayed behind and tried to capture this beautiful cultural exchange.

As you can see from these images, he walked us down the street, over the windswept, rain-lashed bridge, across the sand and under the shrine gate, and into the shrine itself and never asked or hinted for a penny. At the end of it all, he gave us a simple bow, posed for a picture, asked us to take care, and returned on his own. Outstanding! In the days following, we all realized he'd kept my raincoat when he returned to his shop. We had planned to return the following week, but within 72 hours, "ojisan" had returned the jacket to my college and left a little thank you note with it. I'm still shaking my head at the kindness and thoughtfulness. 

Once inside the shrine, the celebrations for my daughter began. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take photos within the inner shrine itself (not visible here), nor of the ceremony where the Shinto Priest (in our case, Priestess) does the blessing. To be honest, there's no time to do so anyway for a parent, because there are a lot of small rituals you need to do and a lot of standing up, sitting down, and bowing to do. Plus, I had to nurse my youngest daughter on my knee. Sometimes, I like keeping certain things private. 

After the official ceremony was done, we went back out into the shrine grounds and bought some "ema" to write on. They are little wooden blocks that you write dreams on and hang in the shrine. You can see them in this photo below. But what I want you to pay more attention to is the color of my wife's kimono and my daughter's kimono. The colors are deliberate and are another great example of the thought that goes into Japanese culture and its efforts to think of others first as often as possible. 

You can see here that my daughter's kimono is a bright, dazzling red and my wife's is a more understated creamy, lightish color. That's because the day is to celebrate the daughter, and therefore, the mother's kimono must not be so bright or vivid that it takes any attention away from the daughter. It's all about the daughter on this traditional day, and her kimono and appearance must reflect that. I never knew this until I saw lots of other mothers wearing rather plain (though beautiful) kimonos and asked my wife about it. Without hesitation, she explained the reasoning. I love that there's almost always a reason for the cultural customs in Japan and most people know about them when you ask. 

In summing up, this was my first "shichi, go, san" celebration, but I have three more to come. This day showed me so many parts of Japanese culture that I have grown to love and admire over the years and use to assuage any doubts about calling this country my home. It's not perfect, but I do love the respect and loyalty to tradition it has and the respect and help that people show to each other.

Do you have any similar experiences in Japan you'd like to share or of other countries that have equally impressed you? I'd love to hear about them in the comments below. 

Iain Stanley's picture

Iain Stanley is an Associate Professor teaching photography and composition in Japan. Fstoppers is where he writes about photography, but he's also a 5x Top Writer on Medium, where he writes about his expat (mis)adventures in Japan and other things not related to photography. To view his writing, click the link above.

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20 Comments

after 1 month in Japan I'm Happy that I'm living elsewhere :)

With marriage and birth rates so low in Japan, this must be a very rare sight!

In the big cities like Tokyo and Osaka the birthrate is a big issue, but in the deep countryside such as where I live (Miyazaki), the birthrate is a bit higher. At last official count Okinawa was highest at 1.89 and Miyazaki was 3rd at 1.72, which isn’t too far off Australia’s 1.8

How the countryside is different from the cities (which is what we usually hear about) in this regard might make for a good story!

yeah as long as I can tie it all back to photography and capture the interest of photographers then I always love writing about life in Japan

haha gotta love those ojisans sometimes. On my 2nd or 3rd day in Japan some 15 years ago, I was at a small restaurant (izakaya) when the older gentlemen at the next table ordered a plate for my friend and I. After it had come out and we'd eaten it, they informed us it was raw horse! Great intro. We went on and drunk a stack of shouchu with them but refrained from any more horse. Lovely guys though.

hahaha I've lived in Samoa and Thailand and Korea as well so not too much shocks me when it comes to food. Back in those days, I was pretty much game for anything though I do have somewhat more refined senses these days.

Alternative title: “Ojisan Saves the Day”

With my broken ribs he was our Superman!! SuperOjisan!

Absolutely wonderful story.

My (Chinese) wife and I live in Shanghai and so Japan is a mere hop, skip and a jump away. We came back yesterday from our second visit (there will be many more) this time to shoot the Momiji (Autumn leaves turning colours) and were yet again extremely impressed by the politeness, cleanliness, food quality (anywhere - they take great pride in serving up good food) and of course the efficiency of almost everything. Even credit cards are becoming easier to use :)

One other aspect that surprised us was that Japan is no longer the terribly expensive sojourn it used to be (I'm assuming the Yen has depreciated) ? Food prices are excellent at (not the Michelin starred!) restaurants and the cost seemed to be around 50% of those in Shanghai, borne out by our price checking in supermarkets.

Plus bowls of seriously wonderful noodles and wonton or hún dun (Mandarin, sorry don't know the Japanese name) with plates of Tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlets) at small local restaurants for around $5 !

Back onto photography and often just a request (in English) and pointing at your camera is enough to get permission for a shot, followed by some bowing and 'Arigato, Arigato' as thanks.

Can't wait to go back again !

Cheers Kevin. Yes all my friends are always gobsmacked when they see how cheap Japan actually is outside of Shinjuku and Ginza. Down where I am it's like a different world when you're comparing prices. I love it up in the cities for a few days but I start yearning for the quietude of the countryside pretty quickly. Shanghai is a very lively city, especially around the Huangpo River, but it ain't cheap!

Let me know where you are and if we over your way onour next trip I'll look you up :)

Miyazaki, in SW Japan. The SE part of Kyushu island :)

thanks a lot for this great article

Just having returned last month from Japan, I always find it always a fun adventure. We saw these tour operators for the canal boats taking a break. I though it made at least a interesting pic.

great shot. I love those hats. They always add that traditional Asian flavour no matting the setting

Certainly a different experience...when you are not white ;-)

I respect that...good start.

Google "black experience in Japan"...

My time there was profoundly different. The country is beautiful and I encountered some very nice open minded people. Also I couldn't wait to get transferred back to the USA...in fact I took a pay cut and an assignment in Ireland for 3 months just to get out of there.

I hear ya...and I don't.

I've travelled far and wide...many places I would visit again but never for an extended period or to live.

Kinda feel that way about the USA sometimes but it's my country. Like a family you can't escape from lmao...

Oooh you should try to meet up with Lee Chapman from https://tokyotimes.org/, been following his blog for years.