Hina-Matsuri or Girl's Feltival

Today is Hinamatsuri.

I was surprised to see Google's homepage.

An illustration of Japanese Hinamatsuri dolls was on it.

Is the Google's homepage universal? If so Hinamatsuri may have captured acknowledgement in the world.

It reminds me of the fact that there were a lot of opportunities to introduce Japanese culture and on March 3rd there was a display of Hinamatsuri in my children's school in Holland.

For Hinamatsuri Japanese family take out Hinamatasuri dolls from the shed in advance.

It depends but a few weeks earlier I think.

In our house the following dolls are displayed.

Always I get confused which doll is right and left.

So I am not sure this is the right position. I heard that it depends on times and locals.

I heard the dolls represent Japanese Emperor and Empress marriage in older days.

Parents pray their daughter's happy marriage by displaying Hinamatsuri dolls.

My dolls set is very simple one compared to those which are more gorgeous and with more dolls and miniature furniture displayed on the stairs shaped shelf with 5 or 7 steps.

When I was little I did not have Hinamatsuri dolls in my house. Because I was a third child and the first and only girl in my family my parents did not have a chance to find one. I always asked my parents to get me nice dolls set but the problem was we didn't have enough space to keep a big one in our house. At last my mother learned how to make Kimekomi　dolls and made these two Hinamatsuri dolls for me.

Kimekomi dolls: they are made by pasting fabric on the surface of a wooden doll. Drapes of the doll's garment's are expressed by curving out lines on the wooden body and pasting fabric on the surface using a steal tooth pick like tool.

It is said we should put away the dolls immediately after March 3rd otherwise it is likely that our daughter's marriage become delayed.

Today's dinner menu is;

Gomoku-zushi or vinegared rice mixed with cooked vegetables

I put ikura, salmon's eggs and nori on top.

Shira-ae or tofu mixed with vegetables

Ushio-jiru or clam soup

I had cherry blossom shaped 'fu' or wheat bran in stock and put some as garnish which makes simple soup look pretty and yummy.
desert, cake which I bought at the supermarket.

Shiodome and Ginza

Last weekend we visited Shiodome and Ginza area in Tokyo.

My daughter joined performing arts school this year so I need to come to Shiodome to send and pick her up every weekend.

From our house to Shiodome is about 1 hour by train.

Shiodome is known as the former site of JR railway garage. It is redeveloped and many new buildings were built and particularly known as the place for Nittele or Nippon Television Network Corporation, one of the major TV broadcasting company's site.

The above video is the clock called Nittele Giant Clock. Its size is 12m high and 18m wide. It consists of 32 mechanisms in total and the performance can be observed 4 or 5 times every day. This clock was designed by Hayao Miyazaki who is a famous Japanese animator known for his films such as 'Princess Mononoke' or 'Spirited Away'.

It was the first time for us to observe the performance and what amazed me was its quality of sound. I felt like I was in a concert hall.

The following photo is the landscape from one of the buildings nearby.

All of these lands you see are reclaimed land in Tokyo bay.

The large green area is Hamarikyu Garden.

We happened to find this fantastic place. This is a kind of a fountain which squirt mist at set times.

After my daughter's lesson we walked to Ginza from Shiodome because they are very close.

Ginza is known as fashionable shopping district with many stores including several department stores and it is always crowded with people.

Please look at following picture! Where do you think I found this?

The answer is at a toy store in Ginza.

What do you think this is? Is it a baked fish?

No! It's chocolate!

In Japan we have a strange custom of giving chocolate on St.Valentine's Day. In the past it used to be a custom for girls to confess their love but nowadays girls give chocolate not only to boys but also to friends and co-workers or boss in their office, which means almost everyone!

For this reason, in this period of the year we see variety of chocolate for Valentine's Day for sale.

This fish-shaped package of chocolate is off course a joke product.

I hope the chocolate inside doesn't taste like fish.

My son was interested in eating Shabu-shabu. He had never eaten Shabu-shabu. So we decided to have dinner at a Shabu-shabu restaurant.

Shabu-shabu is one of the popular Japanese dish. It is particularly popular for foreign visitors to Japan. I think regular Japanese don't eat Shabu-shabu often. Because beef is very expensive in Japan and we regard Shabu-shabu is a luxury dish for a special occasion.

We cook thinly sliced beef in a boiling broth just a short time and eat it after dipping in "ponzu", sour soy sauce, or "gomadare", sesame flavored sauce. We cook vegetables in the same pot and eat them dipping in either of these two kinds of sauce.

The restaurant we went was called Shabusen. The price was more reasonable than we expected. The price of the course we ordered was ￥2,000, about $20.00 or €20.00. The course included one serving of noodles or rice porridge and desert in addition to Shabu-shabu.

On the ground floor of Matsuzakaya department store there is a very popular baumkuchen shop called Nenrinya. There is always a line of people to buy this baumkuchen in front of the shop.
I joined the line without hesitation to buy some for our family! They have two kinds of baumkuchen. One is fresh and soft and the other is more dense and crispy outside. I bought both and the taste was great! They have two flavors which is plain and chocolate. Usually I prefer chocolate flavor but I liked plain better this time. My daughter liked the crispy one but I thought soft one was good, too. What is regrettable is its price. If it is cheaper I would buy some every weekend!

The following picture is of dense and crispy ones. I forgot to take a picture of soft one before eating, which happens so often in my case. Sorry!