Hina Matsuri

Friday was Hina Matsuri, or Girl's Day Festival. (Boy's Day is coming up in May. Boys day is a national holiday here, but girls day seems to be nothing but eating and making dolls. I can't help but see the inequalities in this right off the bat.)
Here you can see Rob right before our giant feast provided by Ms. Dokuni. The special food for girl's day is sushi, mochi that is flavored like cherry blossom flowers, and a sweet rice wine (amezake). We had a great time eating, talking, and learning about cool Japanese stuff.

So the big thing for this holiday is to make dolls or buy dolls and set them up in your house. If you're making the dolls you have to be finished before the holiday becuase the longer you display them after the holiday is over the longer it will be until you are married. Thus making it probable you will be an old maid if you are slow at the crafts. ahh well. Here are two dolls made for us. This one was made by the Special Education class at Rob's school. He teaches them English at least once a month so they are pretty good friends by now.

One of the people at Kono named Ms. Kamo made these origami dolls for me. She is a really nice lady who is always doing nice things for me or making origami in her free time. I thought this set was suprisingly detailed, beautiful, and tiny. I have chosen to leave it on display in our apartment well after girl's day because I'm already married so the supersition won't hold true for me.