Kodomo no Hi, 2014

Happy Children's Day!!!

Well, not quite yet~ Kodomo no Hi, Children's Day, is this coming Monday, May 5th. For the last couple of days we've had abnormally nice weather, but from the weekend onward is supposed to be lots of rain. So, I decided to celebrate Kodomo no Hi early with just me and baby boy by having a picnic.

For our Kodomo no Hi picnic, we decided to check out the historic Wagner estate and Lakewold Gardens. They just happened to be doing a MayFest celebration until Mother's Day, and had some ikebana and bonsai on display.

The gardens are lovely, but Bryan was fascinated by the statues scattered around.

A pair of dog statues were his favorite.
 

Such a peaceful setting!

Picnic time! He was very excited for the picnic. He has a bit of a dinosaur theme going on, with his dino yukata, dinosaur chopsticks, sandwich cut into dinosaur shapes, and a dinosaur plushie.

For my lunch, I made a cold soba noodle salad using a recipe from Just One Cookbook. It was very good!


He likes playing with his chopsticks~ "ta-da! I did it!"

For those in the Seattle area, there are still some upcoming Kodomo no Hi celebrations to attend:
This Sunday, May 4th, there will be a Kodomo no Hi festival at the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington State <-- click the link for details. Lost of crafts, activities, and performances for the kids. We attended in 2012, but Bryan was still too young to participate much.

Then, later in the month will be another Children's Day celebration at Seattle Japanese Garden, May 26th. We may try to attend for the first time this year.

Have a happy Children's Day!

Kodomo no Hi!

Today we celebrated Kodomo no Hi, Children's Day!

Bryan was very excited to wear his origami kabuto helmet. I told him this morning that it was Kodomo no Hi and he immediately fetched the paper kabuto! We decided to go to Point Defiance for the day to visit the beach and Japanese "pagoda" garden after breakfast. He was so dismayed that I left his paper kabuto in the car when we went to the restaurant for breakfast that he decided to wear the restaurant's children's menu on his head as a replacement...

The Point Defiance "pagoda" is used as a popular reception hall for weddings and parties. 2 years ago it was burned down by a teenage arsonist, but the renovation was finally completed a couple of months ago.

The red torii, shrine, and lamps are very lovely. It was a nice spot to take photos and watch the ducks playing in the water.

He wore his kabuto over a baseball cap, to keep the sun out of his eyes, and we found that helped keep it from sliding off his head so often! 

The small shrine in the center of the pond. The asymmetrical shape of the roof is cool!

The footbridge was a bit tricky for him, but his koinobori swam better in the breeze from the top.

It took a few tries to make a paper kabuto that would fit on Bryan's head. I think the newspaper I picked up must be smaller than standard newspapers. I ended up layering a couple sheets of newspaper to make it wider and ended up with a good one! Our practice kabuto was from construction paper, which we later gave to the cat. Kitty cat Matrix was not pleased.

Bryan later gave him a kiss and thanked him for being a good sport.

And we made and colored a koinobori as well during craft time! We had a very happy Children's Day!

Weekend Plans

Memorial Day weekend, there is no shortage of things to do! I found out yesterday through the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington that there will be a Haru Matsuri this Saturday. It is a 1st annual event being put on by the Seattle University's Japanese Student Association.

I am going to go to the event dressed in yukata with my son, it is a great opportunity for him to wear his dinosaur yukata! I am going to wear a very simple yukata in very bold colors.

Black, lime green, and yellow. I haven't decided yet if I will wear the green or red geta. The green ones have vinyl straps, so I may go with the red geta for the sake of comfort. I don't plan of bringing a stroller with me, so comfort is key since I will likely be carrying my son the whole time!

It has been a long time since I have been to a student ran event. It sounds like the Japanese Student Association is having a good time with preparations. I know it is last moment, but if anyone in the Seattle area wants to check out the matsuri, it is at Seattle University, Student Center 160, from 2-6pm on Saturday, May 26th. It is $6, and that includes $2 worth of food and game tickets.


There will be food: yakisoba, yakitori, dango, and andagi. I have never had andagi, but it sounds delicious! There will be performances, including Okinawa Kenjin-Kai Taiko. I wish I knew when the Okinawa taiko will perform, my son loves it, but I don't think we will arrive at the matsuri until around 4pm because of naptime and the long commute. I hope we don't miss the taiko!

The SU JSA's Haru Matsuri promo video.

There are other events going on this weekend in the Seattle area. Most notably probably is the Folklife Festival at Seattle Center. This is one of the largest free music festivals, and it is supposed to be even larger this year since it coincides with the 50th anniversery of the Space Needle. There will be performances representing a variety of international and folk music. I recommend seeing Inochi Taiko, they will perform at 4:30 on Monday. Northwest Taiko is performing today at 4:30.


Also going on this weekend is the Seattle Japanese Garden's Children's Day event. It will be from 1-5pm on Monday. There will be performances and hands-on activities for kids, including taiko and a puppet show by Mimibunko. I don't know if there will be dance performances this year, it doesn't say on the website. I don't think we will go since we've already gone to one Children's Day event this month, although the giant koi fish at the gardens are great to watch! I think we will try and go to the Japanese garden during Tanabata celebrations this year.


Alright, I hope to take pictures tomorrow at the Haru Matsuri! Everyone, enjoy the weekend!

Kodomo no Hi Festival

Yesterday was Kodomo no Hi (Children's Day), and today we went to a Kodomo no Hi Festival! The Festival is held by the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington.

 Bryan, ready to go to the festival! Wearing a newspaper origami kabuto, his Kintaro harakake, and with his koinobori toy.

The JCCCW's Kodomo no Hi banner

Banners for Tango no Sekku

As we arrived at the JCCCW, we were greeted by Hello Kitty wearing paper yoroi armor, and Lori Matsukawa, co-anchor of Seattle tv news station, KING 5 News. Bryan was interested in what Kitty was wearing. You will get paper yoroi too, Bryan!

There were many koinobori hanging everywhere.

As soon as we arrived, Kaze Daiko began playing in a small room. It was very crowded, but we managed to watch from the hallway.

Bryan watched the taiko drums from on top of daddy's shoulders.

There were several displays and activity stations for the kids.

These look like they would fit on Bryan's feet!

A miniature koto? It is very small. I don't know enough about instruments to know if this is a toy or a real playable instrument. Regardless, the small size makes it very cute!

Children could try on a set of yoroi, samurai armor. My son is too small, but this boy was very happy to try on yoroi!

There were two ro kimono hanging, this one and the pink one in the background of the previous picture with the yoroi armor dress up. They both look very refreshing.

Gogatsu ningyou display

Children's karate demonstrations

There were many things there that we didn't or couldn't participate in, my son is so young. There was kamishibai story telling, but Bryan would not sit still long enough to enjoy it. We tried some coloring, but he was not very interested.

Bryan likes wearing yukata, but has never had someone else dress him other than mommy. Even Pikachu wears yukata!

 

Mommy just relaxes and takes pictures for a change!

He is being very patient, leaning back against daddy.

The heko obi was first tied in front, so the yukata became messy when trying to turn it around.

He immediately tried to run away! I'm sorry Bryan, you can't keep this yukata, it is only for playing dress-up!

"It's okay, baby, you can wear your own yukata at home. Don't cry!"

Time to undress and return the yukata.

Girls trying on yukata and jinbei

Bryan was given a manju. It is too sweet for mommy, but maybe Bryan would like it?

Nope! He didn't like it! Oh well...

Wearing his paper yoroi we made at the festival. We had a good day, and enjoyed Kodomo no Hi!

Kodomo no Hi Display

Recently I've been posting some of the papercraft things I've been making for Kodomo no Hi. I decided it was time to set up the display.

This is in my son's bedroom. The koinobori hanging from the window was a gift, we do not have a full set. I would have liked to fly a full set of koinobori outside, but my apartment manager does not allow it. Almost everything is handmade - the only things that are not handmade are the large koinobori and a small samurai doll.

These were the more complicated papercrafts I did: Rilakkuma models. You can download them at this blog (Japanese only). Left to right: Rilakkuma sleeping in a koinobori, Korilakkuma dressed as Kintarou, Kiiroitori with koinobori, and Rilakkuma eating kashiwa-mochi.

 These are not real irises. I made these iris flowers using silk, in a class I took to learn making zokei bonsai (fake bonsai trees). The koinobori and kendama toy are both made out of paper.

In the center is a kabuto kazari (samurai helmet display). This one is tiny! I may make a bigger one, but I made this one because it looked nice and took the least amount of time to make. Tiger and koinobori links here.

Closer view of the kabuto kazari. I also have links for other kabuto kazari papercrafts: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4

My son's Kintarou harakake is currently being worn by his crocheted sock monkey that grandma and mommy made for him (grandma crocheted, I embroidered the face). Sock monkey is also protecting this koinobori toy so that it doesn't get played with too much before Kodomo no Hi!

I've made various other toys for my son to play with. For now I am keeping them up on the tallest dresser next to his mawari-dourou (revolving lamp). The lamp is made by one of my husband's customers (my husband works for a paper company).
Some links for the toys: Panda den-den-daiko (my son LOVES this), Kazaguruma (windmill), Taketonbo, Taketonbo (string powered, but I can't get mine to fly..), Koma (spinning tops), Tiger toy, Retro paper airplanes, and origami kabuto.

For those wondering, I use cardstock for all of the papercrafts, except for the Rilakkuma models and paper airplanes I use regular printer paper.

This is going to be my family's first Kodomo no Hi, so I am a beginner! I would appreciate any advice, such as if I've made a big mistake with the display! Even if it is not such a traditional way, at least I want to feel as though I didn't break any rules!

I don't yet know what we will do for Kodomo no Hi, other than play with toys. I would like to get some kashiwa-mochi, but it is a long drive to the nearest Japanese sweets shop. I don't know if frozen kashiwa-mochi is any good. We would also like to do shoubu-yu, bath with Sweet Flag leaves. I will have to look around to see where I can find the correct leaves for shoubu-yu.

There are many events in my area for Kodomo no Hi! I wish I could go to all of them, but the drive is very long. My local Shinto shrine is doing kodomo no oharae (prayer) during the month of May, but it is at least a 2 hour drive. There is a Kodomo no Hi festival on May 6th, with martial arts and taiko, food, yukata dress-up, and paper yoroi armor. I don't know if my son is too young to appreciate it, but we may go. Also, the Seattle Japanese Garden is celebrating Kodomo no Hi later in the month. I hear they usually do dance performances, a puppet show, and crafts. My son is probably too young to appreciate those things, but he would definitely enjoy seeing the giant koi fish at the gardens!

My previous posts on kodomo no hi:
Momotarou kimono
Papercrafts
Kintarou Harakake
Update: This koinobori toy has already been destroyed! At least he had fun playing with it, maybe I will make another one.