Children's Day
Hello all,
I have been attempting to contact everyone after getting out of the hospital, but I know there are a few people here who I haven't gotten a chance to catch up with yet. Just wanted to let everyone know - I'm a mommy!
I started this mailing list with the intention of disseminating information about Japan, not to just selfishly go on about my experiences, so if you're interested in me talking about the transition into being a mother, you can go here where I've made an additional Mother's Day entry. Shouts out to all mothers!! You guys rock!
https://japanshin.livejournal.com/108944.html
But what I'm writing to you today is about Children's Day!
https://www.randomisgod.com/pictures/000KoiNobori2023.jpg
May 5th, Children's Day or Boy's Day.
I'm in a hospital. The view from the window is a drab, grey landscape of buildings that make up the inner city. But far in the distance, between two towers, I can see a blue shadow where my mountain is. I greet my mountain every morning, even if the haze is hiding it.
Breakfast comes, and with it a surprise. There's a card on my tray and it says:
"Like a carp flying in the wind, may your child grow upward and upward."
And then, like I do every morning for the last 5 days, I have to take in a deep breath and think to myself, "Oh my God I have a child."
This tradition started in the 600's as "Boy's Day" during the period where it was very important to raise strong samurai boys in the family. Samurai helmets were displayed by those prominent families, but the average layperson was contented to make paper samurai helmets which even today schoolkids are doing. But my favorite tradition of this holiday is Koi Nobori, the hanging of carp windsocks in front of your house. The first carp, usually black, is the Dad, and the subsequent smaller ones are for each boy in the family.
And now, here I am, the mother of a boy, and it's my first time to own a carp windsock. This year, we'll go with the cute plastic one I got from my friend Andrea. There are three koi on it, so I'm calling the black one Yossi, the red on me, and the blue one Jay. Next year I intend to make my own giant one, hang it over my balcony, and fascinate (disturb?) the neighbors! You can buy really big ones to hang up on lengthy bamboo poles for a couple hundred dollars, over 10,000yen. So I think I'll just try making my own!!
In Japan, it was never the tradition to really celebrate birthdays the way we do in the West. Instead, all the girls in the family are celebrated on 3/3 and all the boys in the family are celebrated on 5/5. Yossi doesn't recall birthdays when he was young, although now it's pretty regular for everyone to celebrate birthdays with cake and candles. Eventually, the government designated May 5th as a national holiday called "Children's Day" (Kodomo no Hi) so that all children can be celebrated at once on the same day.
The hospital had another surprise for me. They gave me a catalog with discount tickets on baby things and along with it, a mini pair of koi nobori! So cute! I immediately hung them up in the window to celebrate my little newborn son. Being stuck in the hospital really isn't so bad if they treat me this well!
Before, I'd dreamed of celebrating Girl's Day with a little girl. I'd buy her a beautiful set of royal dolls, we'd make sweets together like it was her birthday, and we'd wear matching kimono to visit the shrine together.
But this Children's Day in the hospital, I thought - What's the point of all that? Who needs dolls and sweets. I will not miss out at all. I'll be running around the park with my son, koi streamers flapping in the wind, and we'll wear matching paper helmets to the shrine. It'll be way more fun than Girl's Day. I can't wait!
https://www.randomisgod.com/pictures/000JayKodomoNoHi.jpg
Jennifer
P.S. Some people from the USA asked what was so wrong with me that I had to stay in the hospital 7 days. What's wrong is the health system in the USA. Why would they have you go home before your body recovered fully from birth and before your kid got used to breastfeeding? Love for the national health system! And major thanks to the nurses who were at my beck and call for everything from babysitting when I was exhausted and just wanted to sit in the shower alone for an hour, to bringing my ice packs in the middle of the night when I sprained my neck on their weird pillows. And all the yummy cake I got to eat every day at 3:00 sharp. Go Japan!