Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! You’ve hear of spring cleaning, but today we’re here to tell you about the fuyu version here in Japan. In this Holiday Special, we talk about ousouji - literally meaning big clean-up, and that’s just what it is! We also talk a bit about bounenkai, a year-end party that you won’t want to miss! Tune in and then stop by JapanesePod101.com to leave us a post!
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 28th, 2006 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Japanese Culture Classes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
11 Responses to “Japanese Culture Class #37 - Big Clean-Up”
JapanesePod101.com says:
December 28th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Mina-san,
About 煤払い (susuharai, mentioned in the PDF; in Japanese):
http://www.jinja.or.jp/faq/answer/09-13.html
Some statistics about bounenkai and shinnenkai:
http://www.japan-guide.com/topic/0101.html
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Joey says:
December 29th, 2006 at 1:52 am
What a coincidence, on sunday i got a random urge to start cleaning up my room and i have been doing that ever since. I guess i have been doing 大掃除 without even knowing it 
chris masood says:
December 29th, 2006 at 3:18 am
i gotta clean my room all the way through listning i was staring at my mess 
oh well i think i will get to it and start my ousouji
Laura says:
December 29th, 2006 at 3:36 am
Ousouji is a great idea! We should try and get it going in the US. It’s so nice to clear up all the clutter and get rid of the stuff that you don’t need anymore. I’ve been doing it lately because I’m about to move and it’s really freeing =)
Lulu-chan says:
December 29th, 2006 at 4:29 am
that is soo interesting about Ousouji…the past couple of days I have been getting this urge to just gut out my home and do a major clean-up. I think it’s a great thing that the japanese do. Get rid of the old and start the new, neh?
really enjoyed this. NOw I am even more inspired to clean up…especially my studio. 
Liz21 says:
December 29th, 2006 at 8:11 am
Re: Bounenkai
I have a friend in Japan who has attended 11 (eleven!) bounenkai this year! 
Asahi_NySurf says:
December 29th, 2006 at 8:48 am
Natsuko is definitely in ぼうねんかい mode.
“We need alcohol.” 
Gonna have a ぼうねんかい with some friends in Osaka. woop woop
Peter says:
December 29th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
Mina-san, thanks for posting! 
11 bounenkai!! I know Take had 7, and he was looking pretty rough after 4! What a bounenkai we had!! The Alpha-male Kazunori lived up to his title! What a party it was. I had to leave to catch the bus to Nagoya. We’re here now, and it is really nice! Today we even had snow!! Tomorrow we’re off to Fukui, so I’ll do my best to keep you posted.
As for cleaning…I’ll worry about that next year. 
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Lulu-chan says:
December 29th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
hey peter-san…
what’s the chances of Kazunori doing a show as an anniversary treat? i bet a lot of people are wondering what the Alpha male is up to.
hope you are enjoying your respite! you all DEFINITELY deserve it! you all work so hard to help us learn japanese! thanks!
annie says:
December 30th, 2006 at 9:21 pm
Cleaning while hungover sounds far better than snowboarding while hungover.
I was invited to 2 bounenkai this year… and I ditched the 2nd one (with the board of education) so that I could hit the slopes a day earlier.
At my school’s bounenkai we played some games and there were skits. And we all won prizes. Probably only 60-70% of the teachers who came drank alcohol. (a lot of people drove themselves to the party) The price tag… 6000yen
大掃除 would be easier for me to do, if recycling weren’t such a troublesome activity here. Where I live you’re supposed to go so far as to empty out plastic packets of wasabi and wash the plastic before placing it into the “recyclable plastic” trash bag.
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Category: Japanese Culture Classes |
Topic: culture, holidays
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