Dragon Boat Race and Children's Day

Hey Guys! I was looking forward to this update because this whole blogging thing is pretty fun! I really like when I get an email or comment from you all about whatever I've posted- it makes me feel closer to you all when I know you know a little about what's going on in our lives! By the way, please let me know if any of you have a blog out there because I'd love to follow it!

So, cinco de mayo got a run for it's money this year. In fact, I guess it's safe to say that no one (Japanese anyway) celebrates cinco de mayo here, but luckily for me there's another holiday celebrated on May 5th, and that's Children's Day. In fact there's a whole slew of holidays called Golden Week that Japanese businesses close for.
 I'm copying this from Wikipedia...

The national holidays making up the Golden Week are:

• April 29
  Showa Day (Showa no hi):
  April 29 is the birthday of former Emperor Showa, who died in the year 1989. Until 2006, Greenery Day (see May 4) used to be celebrated on this day.
• May 3
  Constitution Day (Kenpo kinenbi):
  On this day in 1947, the new post war constitution was put into effect.
• May 4
  Greenery Day (Midori no hi):
  Until 2006, Greenery Day used to be celebrated on April 29, the birthday of former Emperor Showa. The day is dedicated to the environment and nature, because the emperor loved plants and nature. Before being declared Greenery Day, May 4 used to be a national holiday due to a law, which declares a day, that falls between two national holidays, a national holiday. [I completely agree with the Japanese on this rule, ha]
• May 5
  Children's Day (Kodomo no hi):
  The Boy's Festival (Tango no Sekku) is celebrated on this day. Families pray for the health and future success of their sons by hanging up carp streamers and displaying samurai dolls, both symbolizing strength, power and success in life. The Girl's Festival, by the way, is celebrated on March 3. 

The best part is that families hang up these carp streamers outside their homes; the government even hangs them from poles on the highways. You can click the enclosure link provided to see a picture of these carp streamers and more information on Children's Day.

My friend Viva and I went to Naha to see a Dragon Boat Race that was taking place during Golden Week. The picture above is in the Port where the race took place and it cracks me up. It looks like something out of a storybook, teaching kids about different modes of transportation.

 
The cool thing is that in this annual race, Americans and Japanese both participate in the competition. There were Japanese teams, as well as teams from the Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy and Army.

The teams were comprised of the team manager, a drummer and around 25 paddlers. The drummer set the rhythm for the pace and the team manager walked up and down the canoes encouraging the team. The race pictured here was a close one!

Inbetween races we walked around the festival and got some food. One interesting thing we tried was Japanese ice cream flakes. I wish I could remember the name of it so that I could google it and tell you what it was, but it was the weirdest consistency of ice cream I've ever had. It was a ton of thin, individual flakes. Very delicate and airy. They were not very sweet, but you ate them with a topping, like strawberries or blueberries. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

We realized a pageant was taking place on the stage near the festival and decide to stop and watch. Kind of contrasts with the mental picture a pageant brings to mind, huh? Everyone is definitely more conservative in Japan, which is a nice change from some of the over-the-top glitz and glam of America.

 Well, that's it from me this week. I'll leave you with a little Japanese lesson! (Hopefully I've learned this correctly!)

Watashi wa America-jin desu.

Literally translated as: I American am. Japanese verbs always come last.



Watashi wa= subject and subject marker, in this case "I"
America-jin= American
desu (pronounced "des" like decimal) = am/is.