:37:04
by which the Japanese wash off
one year to enter the next one.
:37:08
A full month is just enough for them to fulfill
all the duties that courtesy owes to time,
:37:13
the most interesting unquestionably being the acquisition
at the temple of Tenjin of the uso bird,
:37:19
who according to one tradition eats all your lies of the year to come,
and according to another turns them into truths.
:37:26
But what gives the street its color in January,
what makes it suddenly different is the appearance of kimono.
:37:33
In the street, in stores, in offices, even at the stock exchange
on opening day, the girls take out their fur collared winter kimono.
:37:42
At that moment of the year other Japanese
may well invent extra flat TV sets,
:37:47
commit suicide with a chain saw,
or capture two thirds of the world market for semiconductors.
:37:50
Good for them;
all you see are the girls.
:38:04
The fifteenth of January is coming of age day:
an obligatory celebration in the life of a young Japanese woman.
:38:08
The city governments distribute small bags
filled with gifts, datebooks, advice:
:38:14
how to be a good citizen, a good mother, a good wife.
:38:17
On that day every twenty-year-old girl
can phone her family for free, no matter where in Japan.
:38:24
Flag, home, and country:
this is the anteroom of adulthood.
:38:29
The world of the takenoko and of rock singers
speeds away like a rocket.
:38:33
Speakers explain what society expects of them.
:38:37
How long will it take to forget the secret?