Monday, May 08, 2006

May 5 - Children's Day in Japan

Hi ladies!
I'm back from "Golden Week" holidays. I has such a great time with my family for a whole week. I'll post some photos today and again later this week!
May 5 was a national holiday here in Japan, called "Children's Day". Doesn't it sound so nice? I used to love this day when I was a child myself. Many facilities are opened free to children, like zoos, museums, theaters and so on.
If you have a grandson or son at home, many families celebrate this day with "koinobori" as the photo shows. It's a family of carp streamers.
For hundreds years, we're putting a high pole in the garden to have those carp streamers swim. This has a special meaning, of course. Wishing a steady growth and lots of happiness for their small sons in the
future, parents and grandparents buy those special ones.

Also, we Japanese eat this sweets, "Kashiwa-Mochi" on the day. The leaf you see is called "Kashiwa".
You cannot eat the leaf, but enjoy the beautiful smell of it. Inside of the mochi (stickey cake), there's sweetened black beans.
Yum yum!!

11 comments:

Frau Vau said...

sounds like you had a lot of fun during your holidays :)

i´m curious how those cakes taste... sweet beans sounds somehow strange to me ;)

Handmade Girl said...

Beautiful pictures! I am glad you are back posting again!

etre-soi said...

it looks really wonderful :)

Bazar Manualidades said...

I love the Japanese culture and the way you tell your stories... I love the name "koinobori", it's fun to say it out loud!
The picture of your kids in front of those tiny flowers is soooo beautiful!

joyce said...

sounds like a great holiday kumi!
such a cute picture of the girls.

Kumi said...

Hi Larissa.
Glad to hear you're enjoying my blog.
I'll try to write something unique from Japan!
Thank you :D

Kumi said...

Hi madhatter.
Yes, I did have such a great holidays.
I'll have to post the photos, eh?

In many Asian countries, we eat those sweet black beans and they're so yummy.
When you have a chance to visit Dusseldorf, visit some Japanese grocery shops there.
They have some selections of those yummies!

Kumi said...

Hi handmade girl.
Yes, I'm back!!
And I'm so happy that you're feeling better now!

Kumi said...

Salut, Sophia.
Merci, mon amie!

Kumi said...

Hi Patricia.
Your sweet comments melted my heart.
"Koi" means carps, and "Nobori" means streamers.
I think it sounds cute!
My daughter of 3 yrs old sometime say wrong!!
Thank you, Patricia!

Kumi said...

Hi Joyce.
Yes, we did so much fun during the holidays.
Hope you're doing good!