Coming of Age Day (Seijin no Hi) occurs on the second Monday of January. This public holiday is dedicated to all the young people in Japan who turned twenty in the previous year, the age one is considered an adult.

Source: Keiko Shih

The ceremonies which take place all over the country, are typically flashy affairs. Young men come in their best Western-style suit or hakama (a kimono worn in martial arts) and women wear furisode (a colourful long-sleeved kimono worn by young, unmarried women). These are usually rented as the cost of buying a full kimono can be incredibly costly.

Since the ceremony takes place in the winter, the young women can also be seen wearing sumptuous white fur scarves. The participants will be up at the crack of dawn to attend salon appointments for their extravagant hairstyles, nails, make up and other beauty treatments.

Becoming an adult in Japan means you can do all manner of new activities such as smoking and drinking alcohol. Many new adults mark the occasion by drinking until they're sick, but some youths have chosen to celebrate the occasion in a slightly different, yet still stomach-churning way.

These new adults decided to skip changing out of their luxurious kimonos to head straight to Toshimaen Theme Park in the suburbs of Tokyo. The video is 360 degrees, so you can check out all their extravagant outfits, as well as the varying degrees of terror on their faces.

The elaborate hairstyles, complete with accessories, remain surprisingly intact and despite the difficulty of clambering out of a roller coaster carriage in a kimono, they all still look incredibly glamorous.

If this video is anything to go by, we can conclude that Japanese hairspray is the best in the world.


By - grape Japan editorial staff.