March 3: Hina Matsuri

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VERY LATE, I know...as always! The pics are actually from March 2 😉

Japanese Vocabulary
Hina Matsuri: the Doll Festival
ningyo: dolls

Matsuoka Sensei, one of my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English), invited some of us to her place for a Hina Matsuri lunch. The Doll Festival, or Girl’s Day, is on March 3 (3/3) every year. Families, well actually, mothers put out big ningyo displays for their daughters in the week before Hina Matsuri. The crowning pieces of the doll display are a prince and princess doll, in the image of marital bliss- it is said (by Matsuoka Sensei), that the festival and doll display is somehow supposed to insure that your daughter gets married well. BUT, if the dolls are not put away the day of the festival, or earlier, than your daughter will be doomed to spinsterhood, which in Japan, means they will stay on living with their parents FOREVER!!!

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Photos

Ningyo
a pic of me, Christine and Zach with the doll display...as you can see the display takes up a whole room and some of the dolls are pretty big...

Me and Matsuoka Sensei
at her (REALLY NICE) house in a neighboring town

ocha
Apparently Mr. Matsuoka, who is a really good cook and made us a really nice lunch of roast beef, is also studying tea ceremony and had a sort of mock tea ceremony for us.

[i]wagashi[/i]
Japanese sweets, always made of some sort of very sweet bean paste ([i]an[/i]) and often served at tea ceremony because it balances out the bitterness of the green tea.

cute!
A sweet that is supposed to look like a wrapped up doll.

Mr. Matsuoka
the tea master!

Zach
As tradition dictates, rotating his teacup 3 times before he drinks it.

Matsuoka Sensei
would probably be horrified to know that I am putting a picture of her on the internet...

Comments

[Zach]

Late!
Better late than never, eh? Actually, you turn the cup two times to the right before you drink and two times to the left after you drink! Mr. Matsuoka would be very angry! Actually, I saw him yesterday at his workplace. I could go for some o that Roast Beef again!