May 5, Children's Day

May 5 is the national holiday called Children's Day. Originally it was the day for boys and we still have a custom to stand a carp streamer outside the house and set a decoration of ancient warrior's helmet to pray for boy's healthy growth.

For my family it is a special day because it's grand-pa's, my husband father, birthday!

We met my husband's parents to celebrate birthday in Ueno in Tokyo.

Last time we came to Ueno park in late March energy saving after the disaster was going on and there was no lights at night. The famous Ueno zoo was closed then. After the last giant panda in Ueno zoo from China died in 2008 there were no giant panda for a while. This year Tokyo got two giant pandas from China and they were supposed to be shown in public in late March. But because of the 3.11 disaster the Ueno zoo got closed and panda's release was postponed. On April 1 the Ueno zoo started to show the giant pandas. Since then many people visit the Ueno Zoo to see pandas and we see quite a long line of people especially on weekends in front of the entrance.

Before we meet my husband's parents we visited the National Museum of Nature and Science.

http://www.kahaku.go.jp/

My son is in front of the display of Japanese dog's stuffings. The white dog is that of a famous dog Hachi. Nearly 80 years ago there was a dog named Hachi. He became famous for his loyalty to his master. Hachi waited for his master at the station to meet his master after work as a routine but he kept waiting there after the master died without knowing his death for 10 years. Famous American actor Richard Gere was moved by this fact and he made his movie in Hollywood about this dog.
There was an experience corner of science technology which my kids got interested so much and wouldn't leave.

This one is for experiencing magnetism.
My daughter is shaking hands with her up side down reflection.

This experiencing corner reminded me of NEMO we visited in Amsterdam. Since we didn't enough time to have my kids play as much as they wanted I would like to take them there again.
We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Ueno Park.

My daughter is pouring sake for her grandpa. He became 76 years old.
This is today's lunch. Lacquered container's shape is so interesting!
The bottom container was for rice with broiled eel, we call kabayaki, second was grated yam which we eat with rice. The top container was for sashimi.

The vegetable you see on the left is Japanese pickles using cucumber and Japanese white radish.
This is grandma and and grandpa.
From April 29 to May 5 we have 4 national holidays. With Saturday and Sunday included many people can have a long holiday so we call this period the Golden Week.

There were many stands of food. This landscape can be often seen in festivals.
After lunch we visited the Shitamachi Museum http://www.taitocity.net/taito/shitamachi/.

In front of the building picture story show demonstration was going on.

In old times the story tellers move from one place to another with a bike telling story using pictures to children. They earn by selling cheap sweets or toys after the story. We no longer see this kind of story tellers anymore.

After the story the teller gave some quizzes and the one who could make the right answer he/she got a small prize. My son could get 2 right answers with a help from his grandma! My kids seemed to enjoy this show.
Entrance of Shitamachi Museum. Shitamachi means downtown.
This is a cheap sweets shop.
Very old Japanese room. Even when I was small my house was not like this anymore.
Paper fortune.
This is a replica of a Japanese old public bath house. There was an elevated seat between men's entrance and women's. The bathhouse owner or his wife could sit here and receive money from their customers. My son is sitting there and peeping women's bath!
Old telephone. This is the telephone every house had when I was small. I asked if my kids can use this kind of telephone but they could not!
This is an old style post.
Lastly my tulip's final report.

On April 29 all my tulips bloomed.

The red ones were very tall and the stems couldn't hold their large flowers so I had to set a pole.
Red ones were gorgeous and looked like roses!
The black ones were tall, too. I had to set poles for them, too.
Finally my tulips season is over now.