Father's Day in Japan

Cut sunflowers were sold for Father's Day this year. We always get our Papa sunflowers. And businessman's socks.

Kids Web Japan--Father's Day

Mother's Day in Japan

Mother's Day is celebrated in Japan, too. Carnations are the common flower given as a gift. Big Sister brought me this one. Carnation plants in pots and flower arrangements are also sold as gifts. We have FTD here. Other gifts are given, too. Restaurants and food delivery services are really busy on this day.

Note the sticker is written in English.

Little Brother went to the annual Mother's Day festival for kids near the station. He bought me a necklace and an owl statue at a flea market there. Papa brought me roses.

Kids Web Japan-- Mother's Day

Boy's Day Card

I found this card at TOYS "R" US. I bought it for Little Brother. He will be surprised. It's not customary to give or send cards on Boy's Day.

Happy Children's Day or Happy Boy's Day! (We call it Boy's Day in our family because we have a daughter who celebrates Girl's Day in March.)

We went to Showa Kinen Koen, Showa Memorial Park today. Look at the following posts, too. Click on the labels below or look through the archives for April and May 2006 pictures and info. about Children's Day/Boy's Day.

Kids Web Japan--Children's Day

Window Display for Boy's Day

Irises are displayed and kashiwa mochi are eaten for Boy's Day, May 5th. We have eaten some several times already. Kashiwa mochi, that is. Click on the "Boy's Day" label below for more information about the day's celebration.

A full view of the window display.

White Day Cake

Last night Papa brought this cake to Big Sister and me for White Day. Of course, Little Brother had a piece, too. Papa, too.

White Day

March 14 is White Day. Girls and women receive chocolate on White Day. It is not a school holiday. Click on the picture to see the English in this ad. Bunnies are not the usual decoration for White Day.

Kids Web Japan---White Day

This display was at our neighborhood department store. Convenience stores had a few choices of special packages of chocolate, too.

I bought candy in the regular candy section at the convenience store for Big Sister. These are new choices, though. I bought them for a taste test (to see if we like the taste.)

This is matcha or green tea chocolate with mochi (glutinous rice) in the middle. It was delicious.

This is a hard candy. The flavor is matcha milk (green milk tea).

This is called choco ball. Usually they are covered in milk chocolate. There are choco balls with peanut centers. Some have caramel centers. This flavor is sweet corn! It has a crispy center. It was good, too.

Happy Halloween!

Look at the broom! It is nothing out of the ordinary here in Japan. Workers use them on the streets here. This one is huge. It is as tall as I am. I am 5'6". The bristles are as high as my waist. Actually, this one is extraordinarily large. It must be industrial size!

We had a party in our garden last weekend. Twelve children came. They bobbed for apples. They dressed up in costumes from our costume chest, and they hit a pinata. They also ate a lot.

I had bought this pumpkin a few days before. At the party, I cut open the top of the pumpkin. I asked, "Who wants to pull the top off?" Everyone wanted to! They did junken, or rock, scissors, paper to decide who would get to do it. Then they each wanted to scoop out the seeds from inside. They lined up and took turns. They washed their hands at the garden sink afterwards. They each carved one or two parts of a jack o' lantern's face. This pumpkin ended up with four faces!

They went to a nearby park to play dodgebee (with a soft frisbee). It was getting dark (around 5:00) so I went down to give them glowing bracelets. I had bought them for the kids to wear home. Everyone had fun. Three kids had never been to a Halloween party.

A Boy's Day Custom

Today is Boy's Day. It is kodomo-no-hi which means "children's day". Our family translates it as Boy's Day because we have a boy in our family. Girl's Day is in March. Here's another picture of a koinobori.

Tonight, some children will wear shobu wrapped around their heads in the bath. Shobu are the long leaves pictured here next to the dollar bill. Wearing it in the bath on this day is an old custom. What does it mean? It started as a way of protecting children from evil spirits and disease. It is also said to keep poisonous bugs and snakes away. The smell is said to have a calming effect. What does it smell like? To me, it smells like a buttery cake. Big Sister and Little Brother don't agree, but we all agree that it's a nice smell. I'm sure there are many children and adults who are not aware of the meaning of wearing it. In fact, Papa had to look it up on the internet to be sure. To him, it's always been something fun to do. That's the way it is with a lot of customs, isn't it?

Kids Web Japan-- Children's Day

Golden Week

Today is the first day off from school for Golden Week (in our neighborhood). There are several holidays in a row. April 29th was the birthday of the previous emperor. It is a holiday. This year it was on a Saturday and many children now have Saturdays off anyway. Then there is Constitution Day on May 3rd, a national holiday on the 4th, and Boy's Day or Children's Day on the 5th. Today was sunny so there were many koinobori flying in the breeze. It is a string of fish called koi. This decoration is for Boy's Day and is put up as early as the end of April. I took this picture near a parking lot for a garden center. the garden center had its own koinobori!

Boy's Day Flower

This is a small, light purple iris. It has a rather long stem.Look back at the picture of the Boy's Day decoration. I cut this iris several inches before putting it in the vase. It's about two feet long. I bought it in a flower shop nearby. They usually have small dark blue irises with yellow stripes for Boy's Day.

Boy's Day Treat

This is kashiwa mochi. It's available around Boy's Day. It is glutinous rice filled with sweet bean paste then wrapped in an oak leaf. Sounds yummy, huh? It actually is. Especially with green tea.
Kashiwa is oak. Mochi is the round "cake". I've heard people call it a rice cake when they are translating or explaining it in English. That sounds better than glutinous rice, but Americans know rice cakes as puffed crunchy rice. (I've seen that sold here, but you put it in a bowl of boiling water to make a hot cereal.) Mochi is rice that has been pounded until it is soft and sticky. The bean paste is made from adzuki beans that are sweetened. Mochi is sold throughout the year and is presented in different ways. The oak leaf is special for Boy's Day. The leaf is not eaten.

Boy's Day Decorations

We got out the Boy's Day decorations today. May 5th is Boy's Day. Actually it is kodomo no hi or Children's Day, but since we have a boy in our family we call it Boy's Day. (Girl's Day is in March.) Families who have a boy decorate. These decorations were Papa's when he was a little boy. Notice that it is just the armor.

There is no doll underneath (see, no eyes). Department stores sell them. Even Toys "R" Us (we have two or three). We put ours on the landing on the stairs. Usually people put them in an alcove called a tokonoma in the washitsu, a room with the grass mats or tatami.

This isn't a good picture. I'm afraid I couldn't get a good angle or far enough away to take the picture. That's the way it is here sometimes. You have to go outside to take a picture of something inside. I'll write more later and show other decorations.