Jonelle Patrick's Blog, page 45

Sick Is The New Black

In the eternal search for a beauty trend that their mothers dare not copy, young women in Japan are now trying to look…sickly. Yes, it’s gone beyond dyeing their hair gray to using makeup in ways that makes them look positively feverish!

I first noticed this trend when I signed up to be a Lolita for a day, and the hair-make artist used pale, glittery, shadow under my eyes to make them look PUFFY. At first I thought she was just using Japanese makeup techniques that didn’t really work on a foreigner, but later I discovered that it was A Thing for girls to make their lower eyelids look swollen, almost as if they’d been crying. Or not sleeping much. Or suffering from some kind of killer allergy attack.

But this latest trend – called byoujaku, or sickface – goes way beyond that just-pulled-an-all-nighter look. Pale foundation and eyeshadow colors usually reserved for lips and cheeks are used to make you look positively contagious. There’s even a crowdfunding campaign for a line of makeup called Little Red Riding Hood that’s specifically designed to give you that distressed, get-thee-into-quarantine look.

Little Red Riding Hood looks upset that the big bad wolf was not waiting at granny’s with chicken soup.

Of course, everything old is new: oiran courtesans were apparently in the habit of making their eyes look weepy and sick too.

Of course, everything old is new: oiran courtesans were apparently in the habit of making their eyes look like they were suffering from hay fever too.

For more, head over to Marionchan’s blog, which has a lot more byoujaku and oiran makeup details & pix! Tip o’ the top hat to RocketNews for the photo & crowdfunding heads-up, the exiletribe blog for the sickface makeup photo, and to TokyoGirlsUpdate for the oiran makeup info.

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.

View more on Jonelle Patrick's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 06, 2015 22:09

I Love Japanese New Year’s Decorations!

In Japan, the frenzy of weird Santas and blue poinsettias are whisked away the day after Christmas, and replaced with something far better…new year’s decorations! I never saw them before I lived in Tokyo, but it was totally love at first sight.

This is called a shimenawa, and although it comes in many shapes, it always includes rice straw, to ensure there will be plenty of rice and snacks with eyes in the year to come.

The white things stacked on this lacquer stand are kagami mochi – “mirror” rice cakes that give a tip o’ the beanie to the sun goddess who shut herself in a cave to pout, plunging the earth into darkness until she was lured out by catching a glimpse of herself in a mirror held up by a fellow goddess. (This is just a little fake one, but last year I posted a picture of the biggest real one I’ve ever seen!)

This is a little version of a kadomatsu, with bamboo, plum blossoms & pine all bundled up together with rice straw bring a triple whammy of long life, piles of wealth, and everlasting faithfulness to the house.

Every twelve years, each zodiac animal gets its turn in the spotlight. This time, it’s the happy sheep year. These plaster animals are really popular, and I’m always amazed at how they can make ANY animal cute, even when it’s the year of the snake!

This isn’t exactly a decoration, but I can’t resist a shot of my favorite kind of sake, because you can only get at New Year’s! Taruzake is stored in barrels made of Japanese cedar, and it takes on a slight flavor of the wood. If you are with me on January 1st in Japan, I’m very sorry, but I will make you drink some! ^_^

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.

View more on Jonelle Patrick's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 03, 2015 11:39

Get Your Wallet Blessed By Fire & Drums

There’s nothing like a good, old-fashioned fire ceremony to get your year off to a blazing start! Flaming prayer sticks, drums being pounded by ultra-buff young priests, the chance to get your wallet blessed – what’s not to like? The fire ceremony at the Fukugawa Fudo temple in Monzen Nakacho did not disappoint!

If your experience with Buddhism is confined to the contemplative practices of Zen, get ready for the holy roller version! The ceremonies at this branch of the Narita Fudo sect are anything but silent and serene – giant taiko drums are beat throughout the ceremony with athletic prowess, and prayer sticks are burned in a giant bonfire right in front of the altar.

Goma prayer sticks feed the flames in the special hearth near the altar.

When the fire is good and hot, attendees are sometimes invited to bring their purses and wallets and other belongings up to the priest to be passed through the smoke for extra good luck.

But the totally interesting stuff didn’t end there – after seeing the impressive pyrotechnics, we went inside the giant modern cube of an annex, entirely covered by the Fudo sutra written out in giant black and gold Sanskrit characters.

We wended our way through the Hall of 10,000 Crystal Fudo Figures (a twisting corridor lined floor to ceiling with miniatures of the Fire God), ventured up the stairs to a black-light-bathed room filled with 108 glow-in-the-dark paintings of various other gods, then went outside to a fountain surrounded by Shenzen dragons, where you can float special wish amulets, and if they dissolve completely, the dragons will grant your wish.

Left to right: The winding corridor lined with 10,000 Fudo-sans and 108 Buddhist rosary prayer beads, the room with the glow-in-the-dark gods, and the dragon fountain where dissolving wishes come true.

The Fukugawa Fudo temple in Monzen Nakacho actually has five fire ceremonies a day (every day of the year) but be I went on New Year’s day, because in addition to the usual attractions, the temple is surrounded by booths selling festive snacks & noshes.

On New Year’s Eve, in addition to the regular ceremonies during the day (9:00, 11:00, 1:00, 13:00, 15:00), extra fire ceremonies are added around the clock (starting at midnight) at 0:00, 1:30, 3:00, and 8:00 a.m., as well as one at the end of the day, at 19:00 p.m. The trains run all night on New Year’s Eve, so it’s easy to make this one of the stops on the New Year’s shrine & temple pilgrimage!

•

Special thanks to Buddha & Tea blog, for the nice photos of the fountain and outside of the temple – there’s more info on that page about the fire ceremony, so check it out! And my apologies for the quality of the indoor shots of the ceremony & inside the temple – it’s strictly forbidden to take pictures during ceremonies and of the sacred parts of the temple, so these are from the Fukugawa Fudo’s official website.

If you’d like to go to a fire ceremony the next time you’re in Tokyo, directions about how to do it and a map are on my website, The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had.

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.

View more on Jonelle Patrick's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 01, 2015 13:35

Get Your Wallet Blessed By Fire & Drums!