March 3rd was Hinamatsuri (Girls’ Day in Japan), so we celebrated by giving thanks to the continued health and happiness of our daughters, and girls everywhere. We had the hinaningyo dolls on display (gifted from my aunt a couple years ago), and Mio loved admiring them. Dan’s parents recently went to Hawaii and sent a cute shirt for Mio they had bought there, remembering that she had had a similar-looking shirt with a Japanese girl/doll when she was a year old, around Mirei’s age, and suggested Mio and Mirei wear them together. It made for some cute photos of the girls matching! 🙂
Ohinasama on display
She’s disciplined enough not to touch, but she loves looking at them!
Can’t believe she is almost four…
13 month old Mirei
The perfect occasion to wear this outfit!
This is Mirei’s second hinamatsuri.
Dan’s mom also sent a whole bunch of hina-arare crackers for the occasion, so I gave some to the girls and they loved it!
Mirei stood on a stool so she could be tall like big sister!
Being goofy together. Love our girls!
Our daughters bring so much joy and laughter to our lives, and we are always so thankful that we are blessed to get be their parents. We hope they continue to grow healthy and strong, and wish for them a future of happiness, love, and abundant blessings!
The National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC kicked off on March 20 and in its first weekend, they held an event called Family Day at the National Building Museum, where children of all ages could participate in making crafts inspired by Japanese culture and also enjoy performances such as taiko and dance on the stage. We went on Sunday afternoon and Mio really enjoyed all the creative activities that she got to participate in (with some help from us, of course).
NCBF Family Day at the National Building Museum
They had some characters that you could take pictures with, and we thought for sure Mio’d like seeing Cookie Monster, but to our surprise, she burst into tears! This is what I’ve come to call “the Santa Claus effect”… (Strange, because she loved meeting the Sesame Street characters at Dan’s company picnic last year.)
Mio didn’t want to meet cookie monster.
Trying to salvage the photo opportunity…
Our first craft activity was to decorate cherry blossom trees with glitter and popcorn.
Mio placing the popcorn “blossoms” on the tree.
The finished cherry blossom tree!
At the next craft table, we made a cha-shitsu, or Japanese tea room, by assembling and decorating a box.
Mio loved using the stamps!
Our collaborative cha-shitsu creation!
At another table, creating a Japanese garden out of pipe cleaners and colored tissue paper.
The completed Japanese garden!
We took a break to watch the taiko performance.
Mio was actually really interested!
Posing with the huge cherry blossom balloons behind us.
While I was feeding Mirei, Dan took Mio to do some additional crafts…
Mio fell asleep on the way home in the Metro. It’s been a while since she’s fallen asleep in my arms like this!
We didn’t really take any photos of Mirei during the event, but she definitely kept us busy with several trips to the bathroom on her first trip to DC. She had two up-the-backer poops (resulting in two outfit changes) and also spit up all over my shirt! Of course, these things always happen at the most inopportune times. After a very messy afternoon, though, Mirei flashed us her first real smile as we were pushing the stroller through the Metro station on our way home from the event. Dan chuckled, “Awww she’s so cute!” and quickly pulled out the camera and captured the moment:
Mirei’s first smile! (Unfortunately, the picture is a little blurry…)
It was a very eventful and memorable day for the whole family!
Hina-matsuri, or “Girls’ Day” in Japan, is celebrated every year on March 3. While the day is a celebration of little girls everywhere, the literal translation of hina-matsuri is “The Japanese Doll Festival,” and as it suggests, a major part of the celebration involves bringing out the display of a set of ornamental dolls, called hina-ningyo in Japan. They represent the Emperor and Empress, and the more elaborate traditional sets have several platforms and include attendants and musicians in addition to the royal couple, all dressed in the traditional court dresses of the Heian period. Families who have young daughters typically display the dolls in early to mid-February and take them down immediately after Girls’ Day. It’s said that leaving the dolls up past March 4 will invite bad luck and that the daughter will marry late in life.
In Japan, virtually all families with a daughter would have a set of these dolls in their household. My mom told me about how the set that she grew up with had been one that was passed on for multiple generations so parts of the dolls were broken or had missing props, but that she and her sisters couldn’t contain their excitement and joy to see the dolls brought out every year for them. As a little girl myself, I always wanted a hina-ningyo doll set to be put on display for me, but the traditional sets can cost thousands of dollars, and were impossible to find here in the States, so there was never one in our house growing up. Last year, I considered finding one for Mio because I wanted her to be able to experience the time-honored tradition that I couldn’t have, but alas, it’s still nearly impossible to find them in the States, and while there are cheaper plush and plastic versions sold in Japan, the traditional ones are still pretty darn expensive! Factor in shipping (if they even ship to the US), and I couldn’t find anything affordable.
So imagine my surprise when last week, on Valentine’s Day, a huge package arrived on our doorstep from Japan. It was from my Aunt Chikako (my father’s sister) and her husband, Uncle Koichi. It was addressed to my father, with a letter from my aunt saying “Dear Older Brother, I would like to pass on my ohinasama set to Dan and Misono’s beloved daughter Mio.” I was honestly so surprised and excited by the unexpected gift that it overshadowed any Valentine’s Day gifts and surprises that Dan had prepared for me!
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw what was written for the contents of the package. (And that the value was 100,000 yen – yikes!)
The letter from Aunt Chikako (Mio’s Great Aunt)
Earlier this week, I set up the display in Mio’s room, up high on top of the dresser so she couldn’t easily reach it. I did at one point pull up a chair for her to stand on so she could admire the dolls more closely (under our supervision, of course).
The hina-ningyo dolls set up in Mio’s room.
Ohimesama (Empress)
Odairisama (Emperor). The detail and craftsmanship in these dolls and all their accompanying props is astounding.
Mio’s reaction? So. Excited.
Mio is usually very rough in handling things like her toys and random objects, as most toddlers are, but she seemed to understand that the dolls and their accompanying props were not to be handled carelessly. She didn’t even really venture to touch anything for the first several minutes, just gazing at everything and taking it all in, occasionally poking something gently here and there.
Mio is already in love with the dolls.
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When “viewing time” was over, there was one thing that Mio decided to snatch up as I took her off of the chair and away from the display…
Very attached to the cherry blossom tree. She had a death grip on it, repeating “hana, hana.” (“Hana” = “flower” in Japanese.)
It’s only fitting that you love the sakura so much as it’s your namesake, sweet Mio!
Exactly one year ago last year, on March 11 at 2:46 pm Japan time, the country was rocked by a massive earthquake and tsunami which killed thousands and set off a nuclear crisis. While Japan has made great strides in the recovery effort in the affected areas, the Japanese people are still suffering from the physical damage and emotional trauma brought on by the triple disaster.
At the time, I was less than a month away from giving birth to Mio, and I could do very little else to contribute to the relief effort than to donate money while caring for a newborn baby in the months following the disaster. However, my family was far from uninvolved in the relief effort — my father spent several sleepless nights interpreting between the US and Japanese governments to discuss how to control the nuclear crisis, and my sister Miwa spent a part of her summer volunteering for the Japanese Red Cross in Ishinomaki to bring aid to one of the most heavily damaged cities — and I couldn’t be more proud of them.
“The pain of one part of humankind is the pain of the whole of humankind. And the human species and the planet Earth are one body. What happens to one part of the body happens to the whole body.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
While we may be living on the other side of the globe from Japan, we are all connected. Seeing the images and hearing the stories of the victims brought heartbreak to people around the world. At the same time, many of us were inspired by the resilience, selflessness, compassion, and strength exhibited by the Japanese people in their darkest hours. I continue to pray for the victims and their families, and hope that Japan can persist in rebuilding to see brighter days.
