A Coming-of-Age ceremony (成人式; Seijin shiki) is normally held in the morning at local city offices where politicians and academicians will give speeches reminding the new adults of their social responsibilities.

The young adults would often visit a shrine after the ceremony to make their wishes before started partying (with plenty of drinks I guess).

Ladies coming-of-age are often seen wearing furisode (a style of kimono) on the day, which makes it a special day for otaku photographers as well…

Photographers’ paradise (Image courtesy of MyMapOfJapan)

(Image courtesy of Arditpg and Papageno2236)

Peace peace… (Image courtesy of Akumach)

Young adults in Kobe (Image courtesy of Japannavigator)

The basic of the game involved 4 players on each side, with 3 people (horse) carrying a rider on top. The teams would charge at each other, with the riders attempting to remove the hat (or headband) of the opposition rider and thus defeating the team.

Sometimes they would use 4 carriers instead of 3, especially for younger kids that probably need an extra person to carry the weight.

In the old days the winning criteria was to knock (or wrestle) the opposition rider to the ground. I am not sure when they changed the rules, but it’s obvious that the Japanese would want to avoid severe injuries from the game. Even with the current format, injuries and falls are sometimes inevitable.

Kibasen is often played in a large group of units (3 horses + 1 riders) on each side, as if on a battlefield. Below are some videos to give you better ideas…

People playing CuJu in a recent cultural
exhibition in Xuzhou, China

The sport gone hiatus for a few decades during Qing Dynasty (221 BC–206 BC), and became popular during Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). The first emperor of Han was said to be a fan of CuJu, hence led to the development of the game.

The CuJu game during the Han Dynasty was similar to modern day’s football game. It was a physical (and skills) battle between 2 teams of 12 players (11 in modern days) to put the ball inside the goal post on the opponents end without using their hands.

The game took a massive change in Tang Dynasty (618–907). First, there was a huge breakthrough in the Ju (the ball)… the ball was made of animals’ bladder and was filled with air compared with stuffed-and-stitch hair and cloth in the old days.

The new ball was much lighter and bouncy, thus the rules of the game changed dramatically. Instead of having the goal post on the floor, the goal mouth was set hanging on air at the middle of the field. The players competed against each other to put the ball through the goal without the ball dropping on the floor… with no physical contact involved.

The light weight of the new ball also gave the females a chance to play the game… and a new form of CuJu sport was developed, called BaiDa (白打). There was no goal mouth in BaiDa… the aim of the game was simply to juggle the ball as long as possible, and showing different kind of skills.

BaiDa became popular among men as well during Song Dynasty (960–1279), and the old game of goal scoring became obsolete gradually.

CuJu began its downfall during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), when the game was used as a gimmick by the sex industry to attract customers; public servants had also became obsessed with the game and that partly led to the downfall of the dynasty.

After overturning the Yuan Dynasty, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) banned all militants and public servants from playing the sport, fearing that their addictiveness could lead to similar destruction of Yuan Dynasty. The game was not forbidden for common citizen, but its popularity was gradually fading.

CuJu was almost completely forgotten during Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).

Today, the traditional CuJu is only played in exhibition and cultural event; its popularity is completely overtaken by modern day football.

In 2004, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of international football (soccer), claimed officially that China was the birthplace of its game.

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The most popular type of kimchi is made with napa cabbage; other varieties include kkakdugi which is a kimchi made with cubed radishes, oh-ee so-bae-gi which is a stuffed cucumber kimchi and kkaennip (깻잎) kimchi with layers of perilla leaves marinated in soy sauce and other spices.

Kimchi has been a Korean cuisine for over 2000 years; it is probably right to say that a Korean meal these days is incomplete without Kimchi. Kimchi is often eaten with rice and other dishes, but over the years Kimchi has developed into various forms of delicacies like Kimchi soup, Kimchi ramen, barbecue Kimchi and Kimchi spring role etc… creativity is the only limit to the reinvention of Kimchi recipe.

Kimchi (Image courtesy of Nagyman)

An extra bonus for eating Kimchi is its health value; it has been claimed as one of the world healthiest food for its richness in vitamins and healthy bacteria that aids digestion.