Flat Stanley Celebrates Children's Day

Today is Kodomo no hi (KO-DO-MO NO HEE), or Children's Day, all over Japan.  This is the fourth and last national holiday that falls during Golden Week.

It has been called Children's Day for the last 60 years but before that it was Boys' Day (Tengo no Sekku) and that's how most Japanese still celebrate this holiday.

I was glad to hear that there is a separate holiday for girls on March 3.  It is called the Doll Festival or Hina Matsuri (HEE-NAH MAT-SOO-REE).  On that day most families with girls display dolls dressed like the emperor, empress, and their court.  Some displays are simple dolls and cards but others are very fancy and can cost hundreds of thousands of yen.

Today families pray for the health and future success of their sons.  They fly carp streamers called koinobori (KO-EE-NO-BO-REE) outside their houses.  They decorate the inside of their houses with samurai (SAH-MOO-RAH-EE) dolls or tiny samurai gear like armor, swords, bows and arrows, and helmets.

Samurai is the Japanese word for warrior.  Samurai were important in Japan for more than one thousand years, until about 1860.  Today people all around the world still study and practice the martial arts the samurai invented.  Have you ever heard of judo or kendo or aikido?

Today my new friend, Hisayo (HEE-SAH-YO), showed me how to make a samurai helmet.  The Japanese word for samurai helmet is kabuto (KAH-BOO-TO).  She used fabric to make my kabuto but we can make them out of paper, too.  I bought some Japanese paper for you today.  While you wait for it to get there, you might want to practice making kabuto with newspaper.

Here are directions for making a paper kabuto and here are some pictures Hisayo took while she was making mine.    

It's starting to look like a helmet!

Hisayo showed me what her name looks like in kanji (KAHN-JEE).  Kanji are symbols invented in China that Japanese people sometimes use to write words.  They are the most complicated of the three different writing systems Japanese children learn in school.  How would you like to learn three different alphabets?

The kanji symbol for Hisayo means "happiness".  I think this is the perfect word to describe my new friend.  She filled me with happiness when she taught me how to make a kabuto.

Tomorrow I am going to visit a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple.  It seems like a good way to spend a Sunday.  The post office is closed on Monday so I cannot come home until Tuesday.  What should I do on Monday? 

Flat Stanley Celebrates Constitution Day

My new yukata!

Today is Constitution Day, or Kenpo Kinenbi (KEN-PO KEE-NEN-BEE).  This is the second national holiday that falls during Golden Week.  Showa Day, on April 29, was the first.

A constitution is a written promise of how a country will be governed.  Japan's constitution was adopted in 1947.  It describes the jobs of the Emperor, the Prime Minister, and the leaders who are elected to represent the Japanese people in the National Diet (DEE-ET).

It is raining in Tokyo for the third day in a row.  For hundreds of years rain fell in Japan every day from the beginning of June until early July.  The Japanese people call this "the Rainy Season".  Last year the Rainy Season started and ended a month early.  I think it is a month early this year, too.

How can we spend a rainy day in Tokyo?  Let's look at some more pictures and read a book.

Most Japanese people own bicycles that look like this one. Many people ride bikes to work or school and many others ride bikes to train or subway stations where there are special parking lots for bicycles. Most bikes have baskets in front of the handle bars. Many bikes have baskets behind the seat as well. Baskets make it easier to carry groceries and school books. Bicycle riders in Japan are not required to wear helmets.

Everywhere I look in Tokyo I see art. Even the footpaths in some of the older parks and gardens look like works of art to me! How many different shaped rocks do you see?

This kind of path is called "nobedan" (NOH-BED-AHN).

I was very surprised the first time I visited a public restroom and saw a traditional Japanese toilet. I could not figure out which was the front and which was the back of the toilet.

I did not have to use a traditional toilet because there are lots of "Western-style" toilets in Japan these days.  "Western-style" means they look like the ones at your house and school.  Some "Western-style" toilets here have heated seats. That's a really good idea!

We decided to buy a book of Japanese stories.  Shopping on a rainy day in Japan is fun.  The shopkeepers and clerks are so nice.  First they put our book in a clear plastic bag to protect it from the rain.

Then they put the book inside a paper shopping bag with handles. After that, they put the shopping bag inside an upside-down clear plastic bag. We sure did not have to worry about getting raindrops on our new book!

"The Toothpick Warriors" is a good story.

Should I tell you this story when I get home?

In Search of Wisteria

It's Greenery Day, the second of three consecutive Golden Week holidays (yesterday was Constitution Day and tomorrow is Children's Day). Today half the population of Japan will be visiting parks and gardens to admire nature's gifts. Make that half the population of Japan plus a half dozen batty American women who are always in the market for a good adventure, especially one that entails being packed like an upright sardine in a train car for 90 minutes.

Our destination is Jindai Botanical Garden in Tokyo where we hope to see lots and lots of many varieties of wisteria. Or maybe we'll go to Koshigaya in Saitama Prefecture north of Tokyo to see wisteria drooping over the river. My flower guide book and two sets of train directions are in my bag. I'd tuck my knitting in there too but there's little chance I'll find space to move my wrists on a train today.