I went to the nearest shrine "Shirahama shrine" this afternoon.
They had already been ready for the new year.
A lot of people come to this shrine during new year holidays to pray happiness, joy and good luck.
By the way, we were taken care of last year.
I hope the new year finds you in excellent spirit.
We will have the children's day on May 5th, so I stood up the carp streamer for my son yesterday.
We had a little wind, but it was sunny and very warm here in Shimoda today.
I went to the nearest beach "Shirahama" with my son to take pictures.
As they had good waves there were a lot of surfers on the beach.
You can see the other pictures on Pension Sakuraya's Facebook here.
My son and I set up Carp
Streamers for children's day which takes place on May 5th this
afternoon.
The children's day is a Japanese tradition to celebrate Japanese boys and we pray that they will grow up healthy and strong.
Today it was a second day of
Shirahama shrine festival.
A lot of people come to this shrine and they watched the traditional dance performance.
And after that they had a ceremony to tell the opening of festival to the gods on the seven islands on the pacific ocean.
Actually it is held on the first day, but they changed the date because of rain yesterday.
Click the links below to see the pictures on our Facebook albums.
Shirahama shrine which has a long
history of more than 2,400 years has the festival on October 28th, 29th
and 30th.
Today it was an eve of this festival and the young boys and girls who are second year students in junior high attended the ceremony which was held in the main shrine.
My second daughter also joined them.
Click here to see the other pictures which I took in this shrine this evening.
We have displayed Koinobori (carp streamer) when it was sunny and we had customers because My 5th was a boy's day in Japan.
Today, it is windy and a good condition for them.
But this weekend it would be the last chance for them to swim in the sky, I think.
Next week they will go to bed until next April!
I took some pictures on Shirahama beach and Sotoura beach today.
This afternoon I went to Shirahama shrine with my family.
It was a first vist of this year for us.
We, Japanese visit shrine at the beginning of new year to pray our health and happiness.
As we are in the new year holiday there were a lot of people there.
Click here to see the picture which I took today.
Pension Sakuraya in Shimoda, Japan
Recently most of Japanese people eat white polished rice.
10 days ago my father in low sent us the unpolished rice cooking set.
This set has a bag of unpolished rice and a pressure cooker, so we tried cooking unpolished rice with adzuki beans.
It was not only really nice and delicious, but also chewy texture and tastes sweeter than white rice.
Of course it has a nutrition.
Today it was very beutiful day here in Shimoda.
And it was getting hotter around noon but we had a strong wind.
Koinobori flags were swimming in the blue sky and they made us very happy.
The weather forcast says it will be sunny tomorrow as well, and will be rainy after that.
My son's Koinobori flags will go to bed until next April.
*Do you know Koinobori? Check it out here!
Today my wife gave me and my son this chocolate cake.
Yes, it was St. Valentine's day today.
In Japan a lot of women have been giving a chocolate to men who they love for a long time.
But recently they, women give a chocolate to not only men in love but also men not in love.
It means the women give a present to the people around, for example, colleagues or friends though they don't love them.
In addition, especially in these days men give a present to women.
In Japan St. Valentine's day was made by confectionary companies long time ago and was developped as a different one from the other coutries.
How have you been?
We had a lot of customers last year at Pension Sakuraya in Shimoda.
We appreciate it very much.
In Japan we, Japanese cereblate the new year's day on January every year.
It is considered by most Japanese to be one of the most important annual festivals and has been celebrated.
At Sakuraya we decorate the room and many places in the building with the flowers like this.
In all Japanese style rooms we put the flower pot with the seasonal flowers and the leaves.
Let us wish you and yours a happy and healthy New Year.
As it had been cloudy and sometimes rainny in these days we couldn't do it.
But actually we could set up "Koinobori" at last yeseterday.
We, Japanese decorate Koinobori to pray that sons or grand sons grow up healty and strong.
According to the story of china, when the carp finishes climbing up the waterfall it become a dragon at the dragongate.
So Japanese parents hung Koinobori up in the sky for children rise up like a dragon in the future.
Anyway I am showing a picture of today's beach.....
In Japan, we, Japanese set up "Koinobori", Carp shaped flags, from April to the early month of May.
Koinobori are flown traditionally to celebrate "Children's Day" takes place on May 5th.
We, Japanese decorate Koinobori to pray that sons or grand sons grow up healty and strong.
According to the story of china, when the carp finishes climbing up the waterfall it become a dragon at the dragongate.
So Japanese parents hung Koinobori up in the sky for children rise up like a dragon in the future.
Last year it was a first time of Children's Day for my son, so his grand father bought it for him.....
It was very warm today, so I wen to Shirahama beach with my son, Yuuki.
It was first time for him to walk by himself for the long time on the sand. He was very excited and had a good time, I guess.
By the way as you saw in this photo, there was a "Dondo Yaki" in the beach.
"Dondo Yaki" is the Japanese traditional bonfire performed at the beginning of New Year.
We, Japanese bring "Okazari" or " Shimenawa", the decorations for the New Year celebration, and burn it in the early morning.
The tradition says that the smoke of Dondo Yaki bring good health and good luck.
I had seen it 3 years ago and took the phots. Please check it out. "Dondo Yaki" (Sorry, Japanese only)
I guess that we can not see this traditional event in the big city in Japan, but would you like to see it?
It will be held on Sunday, January 15th. Good Luck with you!
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