%IMAGE%Chochin (Japanese lantern) widely used during the Edo period (1603-1869) is portable light that use candle as a light source. Japanese paper is applied to a spiral-shaped coil of finely split bamboo, and rings are fitted to the top and bottom of the Chochin so it can be collapsed and folded flat.  

The person who originated the design lived in Odawara, which is now a city in Kanagawa, the prefecture just south of Tokyo and that is why they are called Odawara Chochin. 

Odawara Chochin have three distinguishing features. It is so small and light that it can be collapsed and put in the bosom of a kimono. It is durable and can be used in rain, mist, or other bad weathers. And it was believed to protect people against evil spirits. Some of the materials for the Chochin are obtained from a holy mountain (Saijoji Temple, Mt. Daiyu) where, according to a legend, a goblin named Tengu lives who is said to be untroubled by evil sprits. 

During the Edo period the night-time was darker than it is today and people had to travel on foot. Odawara Chochin was both useful and psychologically reassuring because of the belief that it protected people against evil spirits. For these reasons, it was widely used, particularly by travelers from the beginning of the 18th century. 

Photo: Odawara Chochin (Japanese lantern) (Odawara City) 

My 2nd Day In Japan

Alright, now I’m going to continue my story from my first day in Japan. I have highlighted some terms here in case you are interested in knowing more about them.

And here is goes: I hadn’t seen my penpal in 8 months. Actually I had only met her one time in my hometown near San Francisco. She was studying English at a language school in my town. We went out to dinner on Christmas eve. At the end of the evening I dropped her off at home and gave her my postal address. I didn’t expect to hear from her again, and in fact I forgot about her after a while. But a month later I got a letter from Japan. It was this girl I had met. And so we became penpals exchanging postal mail for the next 8 months.
 
After catching up with my penpal and one of her friends until late into the night I finally passed out on a super hard and uncomfortable mattress. My penpal was kind enough to have bought a bed for me to sleep on. But in fact, later I learned that Japanese people have a lot of stereotypes about non-Japanese people. They will express their stereotypes on you and it can be a very frusterating and degrading experience at times. In this case, my penpal assumed that I could only sleep on a mattress since I was from America, and that it would be impossible for me to sleep on a futon. But in truth, I can sleep on anything as long as it is soft and comfortable. My penpal told me that she had paid about the equivalant of $500 for this mattress and bed set. I felt really bad that she wasted her money on such an awful bed and that she assumed I could only sleep on a bed. What I ended up doing after a couple of days was stacking two futons on top of the mattress to soften it out a little bit.

So the next morning I get up. My penpal, Yukimi cooks me breakfast. I remember eating tiny little sausages that were very robust and crispy. They were very delicious indeed. What Japan lacks in serving sizes it makes up for in the quality of the food. Again though, this was another stereotype. Yukimi assumed that I could only eat eggs and sausage for breakfast because I was from America. But the truth is, there are wide variety of foods that I can eat for breakfast. However, if her stereotype was that I could not eat a Japanese breakfast, she would have been right about that. A traditional Japanese breakfast is something like grilled fish, rice, miso soup, and Japanese pickles, which is actually a great dish in and of itself; but, no, I have no desire to put rice in me before 3pm on any given day.

After breakfast I decided to take a stroll outside. I had not yet seen Japan during daylight yet. The venture outside into my new world is another image that sticks to my mind to this day, 10 years later. As I walked outside I walked down the main thoroughway that was in this neighborhood and which eventually lead to the local train station. Now when I say “thoroughway”, you might be thinking of something like a boulevard or avenue, but this “main street” that I’m talking about was probably more comparable to what an American knows as a narrow back alley.

So that was my first impression: how narrow the streets were. And the second impression I had on my journey out into this new land was these curious orange ball and cyclindrical shaped lamps that were made from corrugated paper. Some of them appeared to be powered by electricity and others perhaps by candal. After Yukimi came home from work I asked her what these marvelous little creations were. I just loved looking at them and they really gave me a since that I was in Japan. Yukimi told me that they were called “chochin” (Japanese lantern). As I was learning Japanese I’d often mistakenly say this word backwards and say “chincho” which would rile up a good chuckle because chincho would translate to “dick length” in English. Regardless to say, don’t make the same mistake as me and be careful when telling someone you like there chochin.

Well, this is one of my first experiences in wittnessing the beauties of Japan. To this day I still love it when I walk past a narrow alley in Osaka, Kyoto or Kobe stuffed with restaurants and shops and there are beautiful orange chochin lighting some little back street alley in such a magical way. The image of the chochin is one that will fovever remain in my mind.

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