Visit to My Family Tomb

My husband and son went to our hometown, Shiga Prefecture to visit our family tomb yesterday. Bon holidays have already started in some companies. My son drove a car in place of my husband. The expressway, Meishin, was not so crowded, though I couldn't go there with them. They cleaned the tomb ,and offered flowers, candles, incense and cakes. They visited both tombs of my husband's ancestors and my ancestors.

Tukudani of ayu was given by my father. Tsukudani 佃煮 means "food boiled down in sweetened soy sauce".Ayu is a specialty of Lake Biwa ,but to my regret, the numner of the fish is getting fewer.






A lot of eggplants were given by my neighbor in my hometown. I sliced one eggplant and pickled it with　asaduke-no-moto 浅漬けの素 this morning. I will be able to eat it in 30 minutes.



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Midyear Gift

I received the first midyear gift 御中元from my sister-in-law this morning. An alcoholic drink is my husband’s favorite. He seemed very glad to have it. My sister knows his favorite very well. I am going to send her fine wheat noodles ,soumen.　播州ソーメン is a specialty in Hyogo Prefecture.

At this time, we send gifts to people who have cared for us, e.g., relatives. siblings, doctors and so on. We send mainly food stuffs. In the Kanto region, they send gifts from the beginning of July to around July 15. In Kansai, they send gifts from the beginning of August till August 15. However, recently, this time difference is not clear. I don’t care about it so much. Anyway, it is better to send midyear gifts by August 15.


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Star Festival

Today is Tanabata, the Star Festival. We write our wishes and dreams on tanzaku, small colored strips of paper. We tie the tanzaku to branches of bamboo trees. Colorful tanzaku is very beautiful and gives a poetic touch to a hot summer day.

This festival came from a Chinese legend in which the star Altair crosses the Milky Way once a year and meets the star Vega. It will be fine tonight and they will surely be able to meet. If it rains on this day, the heavens get flooded and two people can’t meet.

I read schoolchildren’s wishes on tanzaku displayed in a nearby supermarket. “ May a good baby be born safely!” “Better may I swim.” “ May Dad get well soon!” and so on.
We used to let the decorated bamboo branches flow in a river on the following day in my childhood, but I don’t know if the custom still exists.


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Children's Day

Today is Children’s Day in Japan, a festival called “tango no sekku” or “Boy’s Festival”. Meanwhile, March 3 is “Girl’s Festival”. Boys pray for health and growing up to be fine adults. Families with boys display a helmet replica and a set of Samurai figures on a tokomoma, an alcove. And they fly carp streamers outside their homes. It is rainy today, so we can’t see carp streamers fluttering high above roofs in the blue sky. A carp is believed that it challengingly swims up waterfalls like a salmon, so it is a symbol of a strong and vigorous boy.

It is reported that the number of children aged 14 or younger in Japan continues to decline, making a record low for the 27th straight year. Among world’s major countries, Japan has the lowest percentage of children; 13.5 percent of the total population. I feel very sad and regrettable to hear the news reports that some children are not taken care of well, are sometimes abused to kill or are abandoned somewhere. Any child has the right to be brought up as happily as possible.



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Vernal Equnoix Day

Today is Vernal Equinox Day. It is the exact day the sun passes over the equator(赤道). On this day, day and night are the same length. Around this time, the season changes. The cold winter ends and spring begins. We say that no cold or heat lasts through the equinox, however it is very cold today. It feels like cold winter has come back here. Today’s temperature is probably 5 degrees or so lower than yesterday’s.

We have a habit of eating traditional sweets, ohagi, or rice dumplings covered with adzuki bean jam. Olden people thought the adzuki been was a food that purges noxious vapors(邪気を払う).

I couldn’t visit my family grave today, because it is far away from here. Instead, I offered flowers, incense, and ohagi to my butsudan, my family Buddhist altar.



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