Flying Carp! It's Boys' Day!

Children's Day has been a Japanese national holiday since 1948 but for more than a thousand years the Japanese have celebrated Tango no Sekku, the Boys' Festival or Feast of the Banners. The government changed the name of the holiday to Kodomo no Hi but May 5 is still Boys' Day for most of my Japanese friends.

Carp-shaped koinobori flags have been blowing in the breeze throughout Japan for the past several weeks. There's one the size of an infant whale in our backyard. I swear it's doubled in size since we bought it in Okinawa three years ago. If you think suspending it from that tree limb was easy, you have obviously never seen me throw a softball.

Matt and I are munching on brownies and lemon cheesecake today in lieu of the traditional Boys' Day treats, kashiwa-mochi (mochi rice cakes filled with red bean jam and wrapped in oak leaves) and chimaki (a sweet rice paste wrapped in an iris or bamboo leaf).