This is already from two weeks ago! I went to a little town north (?) of Toyota called Asuke on March 1st. It’s right next to Korankei Gorge which has about 4,000 maple trees. It’s one of the most popular places for people to look at the autumn leaves. Anyways. So March 3rd is the actual festival day of ‘Hina Matsuri’. Matsuri means festival and Hina is the name of the dolls. A doll is given to a woman by her in-laws when she is pregnant with a daughter. Every year they have to display these dolls around March 3rd, usually for two or three weeks. The dolls are supposed to bring good luck for the girls – help them find good husbands, have babies, easy childbirth, etc. If the dolls aren’t brough out every year or are left out for too long or too short, they apparently get angry and bring bad luck like divorces, miscarriages, etc. Sounds fun huh? :-P
So why go to Asuke to see the dolls? You are supposed to keep your doll until you die – at which point it might get passed on to your children or you can take it to a temple and pay the priest to burn it for you. If you are tired of dragging it out every year and just toss it in the trash you get really bad luck. So apparently a lot of people in Asuke started ‘adopting’ unwanted hina dolls. This is one of the acceptable ways to pass on your doll – give it to someone. They’re still brought out every year so that means that you’ll sitll have your good luck.
It was a really lovely drive up through the mountains along a river with a lot of bamboo along the edges. Nice curvy road… The nature was beautiful and maybe a little more interesting than the hina dolls but it was still fun to see them.
And as a little footnote, I’m trying to figure out what to do after my Nova contract expires…which is mid-June this year. I don’t think I want to stay here any longer. But I’ve been thinking about hanging around for a month or two just as a tourist. That will require a lot of logistics as far as housing and money, but it would be nice to travel around for a bit not having to worry about getting back to work.
I also don’t really know what to do once I get back to the states. I’ve sort of had Philadelphia in my mind for the last several weeks. Not too sure why, but I’ve always been attracted to Philadelphia…so if anyone has any input on where I should go or a fabulous job that I could have it would be much appreciated….