National Foundation Day
Today was a national holiday to commemorate the day that Japan the country was formed.
I was interested in the origins of this holiday, so I looked it up. It seems that today was actually New Years Day according to the traditional lunisolar calendar, and it is written in an old Japanese history, Nihon Shoki, that the first Emporer Jimmu ascended the throne on the first day of the first month, or New Year's Day.
In any case, it is one of the few holidays that was not changed to a Monday for the convenience of office workers. It is nice to have a holiday mid-week sometimes. We spent a lazy morning in bed and in the afternoon, Hubby took Audrey out to play. In the evening, We decided to go and buy Julian's uniform for April since it is order-made and needed to be ordered soon in order to get it in time. We had some ramen and takoyaki at the department store for a light dinner.
Takoyaki are a round kind of pancake with some vegetable and a piece of boiled octopus(tako) inside. We eat them with a thick Worcestershire sauce and mayonaise and some dried bonito flakes on top.
On the way home, I bought a few things to put on the chocolates Audrey wanted to make for valentines. In Japan, Valentines Day is when girls give chocolates to the boy they like. There is a White Day in March when the boys will give candies back to the girls. I will put some photos up of Audrey's creations when they are done!
I was interested in the origins of this holiday, so I looked it up. It seems that today was actually New Years Day according to the traditional lunisolar calendar, and it is written in an old Japanese history, Nihon Shoki, that the first Emporer Jimmu ascended the throne on the first day of the first month, or New Year's Day.
In any case, it is one of the few holidays that was not changed to a Monday for the convenience of office workers. It is nice to have a holiday mid-week sometimes. We spent a lazy morning in bed and in the afternoon, Hubby took Audrey out to play. In the evening, We decided to go and buy Julian's uniform for April since it is order-made and needed to be ordered soon in order to get it in time. We had some ramen and takoyaki at the department store for a light dinner.
Takoyaki are a round kind of pancake with some vegetable and a piece of boiled octopus(tako) inside. We eat them with a thick Worcestershire sauce and mayonaise and some dried bonito flakes on top.
On the way home, I bought a few things to put on the chocolates Audrey wanted to make for valentines. In Japan, Valentines Day is when girls give chocolates to the boy they like. There is a White Day in March when the boys will give candies back to the girls. I will put some photos up of Audrey's creations when they are done!