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IHG ANA HOTELS in Japan. Check it out.
Here,we introduce hot sightseeing spots and cultural information from the areas
close to IHG ANA HOTELS in Japan. Check it out! |
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Along with the dolls of the Girl's
Day festival and the giant carp-shaped streamers of the Boy's Day festival, one
sure sign of spring in Japan is a bright-eyed first year elementary school student
off to school with his brightly shining brand new backpack - or randoseru.
This sturdy looking backpack will last a student his or her whole six years in
elementary school and they certainly take some growing into for smaller students.
Bright red randoseru look something like pillar boxes with straps. Big, boxy and
made of heavyweight leather, it sometimes seems as if they are going to pull their
wearer over backwards - they are certainly bigger around the middle than some
of the schoolboys and girls that carry them. These days, most elementary schools
do not require children to wear uniforms and so the randoseru has become an even
more important symbol of school life.
The word is the Japanese adaptation of the Dutch word "rancel". It was
during the Meiji Period (1868-1912) that they were first brought from the Dutch
army into the daily life of Japanese children. The randoseru was a symbol of the
regimentation of education along military lines. It came to represent the unity,
discipline, hard work and dedication that the Japanese government wanted to instil
into the education system. For the same reason, high school uniforms that are
still in use today were based on British Navy sailor suits (for girls) and Prussian
army uniforms (for boys.)
Whereas black used to be standard issue, now, as a sign of the times, randoseru
are available in many colours. Red is a common colour for girls' randoseru and
purple, yellow and blue are also often seen. Children will go to great lengths
to personalise pencil cases, stationery and notebooks but the outside of the randoseru
is never marked - giving it something of a hallowed air.
So, off the little boys and girls trot with their brand new packs on their back,
but its not just a burden for them. A brand new randoseru backpack can cost anything
between 20,000 and 50,000 yen ($200-$500). It's usually the grandparents that
foot the bill and thus the handover of the randoseru takes on a weighty significance
quite apart from the bulky load the children have to carry.
But whatever the cost, the randoseru shows no sign of losing its popularity. Brand
new first year students are sometimes referred to as pika-pika. This means something
like "bright and shiny" - something that you could say as much about
their brand-new randoseru as their sparkling eyes. |
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