Seijin: A Coming of Age Love Story [girl x girl]

Cultural Notes

This story will reference Japanese phrases, places, people, and culture. Please check here for explanations! If there's something you'd like me to explain/add, please let me know.

Japanese honorifics:
In Japanese society, it's seen as very intimate to refer to someone by their first name alone. They use honorifics to denote relationships.
-san: sort of the default polite way to address people
-kun: a friendly honorific, usually used for boys the same age or younger
-chan: a very friendly honorific, usually used for children or young girls or between family members

Family name:
In Japan, the family name comes before the given name. For example, Juri's personal (first) name is Juri and her family (last) name is Matsuzaka. Therefore, she would be called Matsuzaka Juri, not Juri Matsuzaka.

Otou-san/chan - Father
Okaa-san/chan - Mother
Onii-san/chan - Older brother
Obaa-san/chan - Grandmother
Ojii-san/chan - Grandfather

Chapter 1:
Seijin no Hi - Coming of Age Day. Held the second Monday in January. It celebrates everyone who has turned 20 (the age of majority) in the past academic year. The Japanese academic year begins in April, so the 2013 Seijin no Hi celebrated everyone who turned 20 between April 2, 2012 and April 1, 2013.

Seijin-shiki - Coming of age ceremony. Local governments hold ceremonies and invite all of the 20 year olds living in the jurisdiction on Seijin no Hi. In 2013, Saitama City invited 12,000 twenty year olds to their seijin-shiki; almost 10,000 attended. Afterwards, people usually celebrate by visiting shrines and drinking.

Furisode - Formal kimono worn by unmarried women. They're recognizable by their bold colors/designs and long sleeves. Typically girls nowadays wear them only special occasions, such as their coming of age ceremony or the first shrine visit of the new year.

Saitama - Saitama Prefecture is the prefecture directly north of Tokyo. Many parts of Saitama are quite rural. The capital city of Saitama is Saitama City. Many residents of Saitama City commute into Tokyo for work or school. Saitama is sometimes called "dasaitama" jokingly -- "dasai" means "uncool, lame".

Shichi-Go-San - Literally "seven-five-three". A traditional holiday that celebrates children. Boys aged 3 and 5 and girls aged 3 and 7 wear special kimono and visit shrines. Nowadays, a popular tradition is to have the child's photo professionally taken.

Kotatsu - A low table with a heater built into the bottom. A thick blanket is placed between the table top and the table frame to capture heat. An incredibly comfortable winter fixture in many houses.

Shinkansen - Bullet train. It takes about 4 hours to get from Hiroshima to Tokyo via shinkansen.

Wards - Larger Japanese cities are often broken up into ku, smaller jurisdictions called wards. In a huge city like Tokyo, the wards are more like individual towns; you'd go to your local ward office to register a marriage, sign up for national health insurance, etc. When moving from one ward to another, you have to submit paperwork to both ward offices, even if you're simply moving from one part of Tokyo to another. Minami Ward in Saitama, where Juri lives, is the southernmost ward in Saitama City, and the closest to Tokyo.

Chiba - A prefecture northeast of Tokyo. It's where Narita Airport and Tokyo Disneyland are located.

Freeter - A phenomenon described by Japanese sociologists where young people choose to work in low-paying part-time jobs instead of seeking full-time employment. Japanese society still largely believes in "lifetime employment" (where you get hired right out of college and work there until retirement) so those who choose not to participate in that are seen as lazy or flighty. The stereotype is that freeters hold multiple jobs and quit regularly and refuse to settle down.