Spring has already come?-- the temperature in Tokyo

Since the last January, temperature has been moved up and down irregularly for a while.
I found the temperature comparison chart of Tokyo in this year with the average in 30 years.
Here is URL; weather report site at city of Tokyo.
http://weather.time-j.net/Stations/JP/tokyo

Bold lines refer to the temperature of  this year, while thin lines refers to the average hi or low temperature in the past 30 years.
This chart shows that both highest and lowest of this year are mainly above the average of high and that of low in the past 30 years and this year is warmer than usual.


Flowers and trees start to bloom and seem to tell us  spring has come.

Girls' day

March 3rd is called " Hina Matsuri", the feast of girls' day.

This day, however , is not a national holiday, although Boys' Day, every 5th of May, is. 

To better understand why this is so, let us take a look at the history of ancient customs in the aristocrat era of Japan, so that we can understand why such unfairness happened.

More than a thousand years ago, only five days in the Lunar Calendar were regarded as feasts and were celebrated in accordance with ancient Japanese customs; January 7th, March 3rd, May 5th, July 7th and September 9th.  Those 5 days used to be holidays for ancient Japanese people; gender was never a issue.

It was only in the Edo period, during the Tokugawa Shogun regime, that the emergence of the Samurai class made somewhat radical change in the holiday celebration.
March 3 was originally referred to as Day for peach and eventually became known as Girls' Day.

On the other hand, May 5th became a day for a strong worrier, the Samurai.

Clearly we can see a distinction of gender at this point. Both dates were considered holidays and celebrated separately.

After the Tokugawa Shogun era, the Meiji regime changed the calendar from the traditional Lunar calendar to solar calendar and at the same time, holidays were reassigned.

Boys' Day and Girls' day were combined to one holiday as Children's Day on May 5th.

See the following URL.  (Sorry, this site is written in only Japanese)
http://www.mataro.co.jp/cpu/column/theme01/column06.php

Valentine's Day in Japan

February 14th is a globally popular day as St. Valentine's day for the sake of his death for lovers.

These days, many lovers gift something attractive to each other as the expression of their loves and some of them propose to marry them.

Japanese customs on the Valentine's day are formed in a several ways; 

(1) Girls give chocolate to boys whom they try to confess their love,

(2) Women give chocolate to men among their office, as a ritual.

(3) Boys have to give something back to girls on March 14th, in each case.

These customs have begun in 70s and it is said that chocolate companies promoted such events as girl's giving chocolate to boys, but I am not sure.
Akio Morita, former CEO of Sony Corporation, used to tell that he promoted those customs, so that Sony Plaza  could sell chocolate a lot, but no data shows this, either.

Whatever the reason is, it is exciting day that many boys are expecting to get chocolates.

The last day of 2015 and a New Year 2016

The new year coming event this time is a little different from usual due to  mourning period.

(Some may know my mother was dead on August, 2015)

I didn't do anything special, even not writing new year cards, but have just worked on cleaning my house, especially the fan at kitchen,  waxing on the floor, sweeping the bed side.

It is one of traditions in Japan for whoever is welcoming a new year to take noodles at the last day of December.

Ramen noodle at lunch, the upper picture, Soba noodle with tempura (fried shrimp and fried vegetables) at night, the bottom one

The New Year 2016, we visited my sister-in-low's home and had lunch with my wife's mother and my three sons.  It is not so often to get together with three sons due to their jobs and things to do, but this year, fortunately they were all available.

In the pictures below, crab is not common food as a new year dish but red snapper is common.
There is some old saying that red snapper is a special fish for some celebrations.
Phonetically, red snapper is called "Tai" in Japanese, and delighted or blissful means "Mede-Tai", so that "Tai" inspires "Mede-Tai" and refers to "delighted" or "blissful".

I wish the year 2016 be delighted for those who read this post, and peace be with you.

Fushimi Inari Shrine

Fushimi Inari Taisha ( Shrine) located in kyoto, Japan.  It is one of the most popular shrine among foreigners and the number of visitors is the largest in the last 2 years consecutively.

The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari which is 233 metres above sea level, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines which span 4 kilometers.

This photo below is the view of the street right after going through the exit of JR station, called "Inari".  This arch type structure, called "Torii", is a symbol of Shrine and it is a gateway from our normal world to the divine world of Shintoism.

Behind the main hall of this shrine, we will find thousands of Torii slog with the slope of the hill.

It is a sacred corridor  up to another hall.  Those Torii were donated by people who wish good luck on their everyday lives and futures.

Climbing up through Torii, we reach out the inner sanctuary. 

You will find red maple trees, if you are there in Autumn or the beginning of winter.
And another Torii  corridor is there up to the top of hill.

Labor Thanksgiving Day

November 23rd is a national holiday, named Labor Thanksgiving Day.

It used to be a historically ritual, called "Ni-Name-Sai"or "Shinjo-Sai", celebrating harvest of cereals such as rice, wheat, and so on.

The picture below shows an alter of Shintoism, worshipping the ancient royal family ( founders ) of Japan.

Usually, in this season of a year, the trees change colors to red, yellow or orange, but this year that transition seems slow.

cats in my house

Hello, I am Karron, 10 years old boy.

Some may know me through Skype.

Recently, I can sit like this and hold my neck up.

I can see things in the different view and feel how humans see things.

Let me introduce my sister Lien, a shy girl and please look at a picture below.