Autumn Moon Viewing

Tonight was the night for moon viewing. Read about Autumnal Moonlight Viewing at Kids Web Japan.

We all went to the roof garden several times to view the moon. It was a nice crisp night. It is difficult to take pictures of the moon. I still need more practice!

We bought flowers with pampas grass. We also bought mochi round like the full moon filled with adzuki bean paste. The rabbit is a decoration our family uses when we decorate for Easter. Click on the label below for other posts.

I took this picture from the roof garden. I used the tripod and zoom lens. Much better!

Moon Viewing

Check last year's post by clicking on the label below. On the streets where we live, people could be seen carrying this home. It's a decoration for moon viewing. We ate mochi and viewed the moon from our roof garden. There was a cool breeze and no humidity. It feels like the season is changing.

Kids Web Japan--Autumnal Moon Viewing

Kids Web Japan--Moon Viewing--Manga

Pampas Grass

Pampas grass is a sign of fall. Pampas stems are used as a decoration for moon viewing in early fall. These are three views of the same clump of pampas grass. The photo was taken at the Jindai Botanical Gardens.

Roadside Color

Another season, another trip to the mountains! We usually don't travel so often. This is pampas grass along the highway to Niigata. I didn't see any growing this year in our area of Tokyo. I only saw it in flower shops. Pampas grass is a decoration used for moon viewing in September or October.

The hillsides and mountains are changing colors.

More fall color. More pampas grass. Concrete walls are built on hillsides to prevent mudslides onto roads. There was a fence along this hillside , too.



Even more pampas grass. A gas truck on the road, too.

This picture of a baseball game was taken through the pampas grass as we sped by on the highway.

More fall color.

Moon Over the Neighboring Apartments

Okay, I'm not a real photographer, but I wanted to show that we did get to see the moon tonight. Too bad I don't know how to photograph it! There's a trick to it. It has something to do with shutter speed and light. Hopefully, I'll figure it out before jugoya next year.

The moon was huge and bright. The sky was not as clear as it usually is after a typhoon. The clouds were spectacular, though, in the bright light of the moon. They looked like they were lit from within. We enjoyed the view from the roof garden. It was a treat.

Moon Viewing

Today was designated as the day to view the full moon. There is a full moon every month, but it is the harvest or autumn moon that is celebrated. It is called jugoya which means the fifteenth day. Moon viewing sometimes falls on the fifteenth of the month. It is determined by the lunar calendar so the date varies.



Rabbits are a part of the decorations. It was believed that a rabbit was on the moon pounding rice into mochi, glutinous (sticky) rice, with a wooden mallet. Pampas grass and taro are also used as decorations. This little rabbit is looking at a tray of dango, the traditional treat for moon viewing.



Round dango, balls of glutinous rice, are sold, displayed and eaten. They are placed on a tray like the one above. Some people display a tray of dango and place it facing east. That is the direction the moon rises. There are manju pictured on the poster. The marks on them are supposed to look like rabbit ears and eyes. They are supposed to look like round, fat bunnies.



Here are two origami rabbits. They are part of the display above. Click on the picture above to enlarge .



These are the dango I bought.



These are manju. They are not sticky like dango or mochi. They are round cakes filled with sweet atsuki bean paste. Usually the bean paste is red, but these manju have yellow bean paste to resemble the harvest moon. The box can be assembled into a tray.



This is a detail of the box of manju. It is a picture of the rabbit on the moon pounding rice.



This shop of Japanese sweets had a corner where customers could sit. Sometimes a sample of a sweet and a small cup of tea are served as they wait for their purchases to be packed into boxes and wrapped. Sweets shops still wrap purchases.



A sink is provided at this shop for washing up. This is an unusual and pretty sink.

Couldn't See the Moon

We got rain and some wind from a typhoon that passed by today. After I left the sweets shop, I was walking along and saw this bucket in the middle of the sidewalk.



It was catching rain that streamed from a store awning. Note the plastic over the display outside the shop. Note, too, the yellow strip down the sidewalk. As you may remember, that is for blind people to use to walk safely down the street.

It was wet and windy all day. So, there was no moon viewing tonight. We ate the dango and drank green tea. The moon was there even though we couldn't see it. After a typhoon, the sky is usually very clear. Maybe we can see the moon tomorrow night.