Children's Day (Kodomo no hi) or Boys Day (Tango no Sekku)

Children’s Day is celebrated as on May 5^th and is the last holiday of Golden Week in Japan.  It was first designated as a national holiday in 1948 and was chosen as a day to celebrate the happiness of children.  Until recently, it was celebrated as Boys Day, with Girls Day celebrated on March 3^rd, but now it is known as Children's Day.  Families raise the carp-shaped fish flags and display a Kintaro doll with the Japanese military helmet, kibuto. Kintaro and kibuto are symbols of a strong healthy boy.

These items have been on display for purchase at the mall, similar to the Hina displays for girls earlier this year. Like the Girls Day displays, these items are not inexpensive.

I don’t think this is connected with Boy’s Day, they just happened to be on display near the Boys Day items. It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but these are big hard shelled beetle type bugs in plastic boxes. I know cats and dogs are expensive, but I still can’t imagine having one of these as a pet.

Greenery Day (Midori no hi)

May 4^th is Greenery Day, a national holiday and another Golden Week holiday in Japan. Until 2006, Greenery Day was celebrated on April 29th, the birthday of former Emperor Showa. The day is dedicated to the environment and nature, because the emperor loved plants and nature.

Here are some close up photos Ted took in the forest on Monday.

A bean seed is spouting on our balcony farm!

Constitution Memorial Day

May 3^rd is Constitution Memorial Day, a national holiday and part of Golden Week in Japan. The day is to celebrate the 1947 Constitution of Japan. It’s a day to reflect on the constitution and democracy in Japan.

I’ve worked on the bouquet afghan a bit more, with a lot more to do. I've been listening to an audio book while stitching, The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne. I plan to spend some time stitching and listening today.

Green Acres

We can’t start planting yet, but we wanted to check out the garden space any way.  We rode the bus and got off near this amusement park at the edge of town, then walked a short distance down the road to where the community garden space is. I’ve been singing the theme song from that old television program Green Acres ever since.

This is the entrance.  I don’t know what the sign says.

It’s a large area with a lot of plots for a lot of gardens.

A few days ago I wrote that our plot is two meters by three meters.  Ted says it is bigger than that.  If I weren’t illiterate, I would be able to read the information sheet about the garden space and know how big it is.  Here is Ted standing in our space.

There is a porta potty at the edge of the field.  You can bet I won’t be using it.

A Walk in the Woods

Yesterday we went to Tony Betz (tonebetsu) Forest, where we cross country skied in the winter.  Most of the snow is melted, so we thought it would be a nice day for a hike.

Most of the trail early on was open and in the sun, so the snow had melted there. The snow under the pine trees was sheltered and covered with pine needles.

Later in the year Ted will camp with first year students here.  There is a nice bath house and an area for cooking out.

There were a lot of large trees down. The weight of the snow caused damage here as well as in town.

We saw this interesting hole in a tree that looked very new. It looks like a pretty big hole for a bird.

It was exciting to see tiny wild flowers popping up through last fall’s leaves. Ted took some very up close pictures.

I saw this viney thing on several trees.  Is this Japanese poison ivy?

We had been in the woods for an hour or more all alone, when all of a sudden one of Ted’s aikido friends popped over a down tree.  It seems like everywhere we go we see someone that Ted knows.

 We hiked awhile with Ted’s friend.  There was more snow on this lower trail area.  You will notice that he was wearing big boots, while we slopped through the snow and mud in our gym shoes.

 The water in the stream was high and fast with all the melted snow.

We had a nice afternoon in the woods.  The forest is close to where we live so I expect we’ll be back often.