Thursday, February 27, 2014

Hinamatsuri

March 3rd is Hinamatsuri or Girls' Day.  On this day many homes display beautiful collections of dolls and families pray for the health of their daughters. On Saturday we were invited to a friends home for lunch.  The wife had a wonderful collection of dolls. The dolls in the very back are the Empress and Emperor.  The dolls in front are part of the royal court.  


It's hard to keep up with all the holidays and festivals in Japan.  On March 14th we will celebrate White Day.  On Valentine's Day in Japan women give men chocolate, but on White Day men must return the favor and buy them chocolate.  To celebrate Valentine's Day this year we treated ourselves to a pizza.  

Peek-a-Boo...enjoying an afternoon walk.
We are looking forward to Hanami...which means flower viewing.  This year we are going to go to several places to see the Cherry Blossoms.  The Kanda River by our home is lined with Cherry Trees.  Each Day Nozomi-chan and I walk down the path looking for buds.

We are also getting ready for Lent.  Last year Erik introduced the idea of the Lenten Meal to the Japanese Congregation.  Both English speakers and Japanese speakers joined together for a brief worship and simple meal.  Many of the Japanese liked the idea of an "American" meal and thought it was fun that Pastor Erik was cooking for them.  I've been searching Pinterest for simple soup recipes to make this year.