Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

   Today, March 3rd, is Hina Matsuri (literally: Doll Festival), or Girls' Day, here in Japan. There's a lot of tradition behind the day that I unfortunately don't have time to detail, but here's the Wikipedia Link. The history is pretty interesting, so I'd recommend looking at it if you have the time and don't know anything about Hina Matsuri.
  Basically though, for girls in the family, a set of special dolls (hina ningyo) are displayed from some time in February until this day. It is said that leaving the dolls out past March 4th will cause the daughter to end up marrying late.
  Keila doesn't have a full set of dolls, but she does have several of the Emperor and Empress ones that have been passed down (thanks, Otousan!). Maybe we'll work on getting her the complete collection over time.
  Besides displaying the dolls, people traditionally eat special crackers (hina-arare), rice cakes (hishimochi), and/or chirashizushi. Chirashizushi is sushi in which the ingredients have been placed or 'scattered' (literal translation) across the top of a bed of rice, instead of being rolled up in it. There's no specific recipe for chirashizushi, and it tends to vary by region.
  Although Keila obviously doesn't care about chirashizushi yet, I did buy some for our dinner anyway. And maybe we'll leave those dolls out a few extra days: we're not superstitious, but I'm also not ready to even think about her getting married yet, either!


               
                                            Emperor and empress dolls

                                         Chirashizushi