Turning 20 in Japan is kids play

Young women celebrate their advancement into
adulthood by dressing in traditional kimonos.

KYOTO, JAPAN – I was looking to snap a picture of someone wearing a traditional Japanese kimono when I turned a corner and spotted literally thousands of kimono-clad girls walking towards me.

I’ve hit pay dirt, I thought, as the army of kimono girls eagerly posed for the stranger; some pushing others out of the way to get their chance to be photographed.

It was one of the most unusual sights I’ve ever seen but it’s an annual event every January in Japan – all part of Adult Day ceremonies when the country’s 20 year olds celebrate their passing into adulthood and become of legal voting and drinking age.

Adult Day actually kicks off a five-day festival throughout the country and this ancient city’s neighbourhoods hold street parties, highlighted by food fairs, to help celebrate the event.

For their part, the 20 year olds dress up in colourful kimonos and parade around the streets; creating traffic jams when people stop and wish them well or ask them to pose for pictures.

No expense is spared on Adult Day – parents fork over large sums of yen to buy or rent the traditional kimonos and beauty salons fill up early as the young men and women get their hair arranged for the big day; which usually stretches well into the night with the “legal drinkers’ stumbling out of the bars in the city’s renowned Gion (Geisha) District in the wee hours of the morning.

Turning 20 in Japan looks like child’s play to me.