In the photo below you can see some fish! These carp streamers, called koinobori (鯉幟/こいのぼり) are put up in honor of sons and in the hope they will grown up strong.

There are usually at least 3. The black biggest one is for dad, the red one for mom, and the blue one for the boy¹. If there are additional boys in the house, more are added as in the photo above.

Why carp? Carp swim upstream to become dragons! And of course every parent wants their boys to do the same. My photo above is a bit lifeless, but when the wind is blowing those carp streamers really swim along!

Now many houses these days have no yard, and many more people live in small cramped apartments. Lucky, there are small carp streamers available at stores everywhere.

As usual, click on each photo to get a bigger version, or head to my flickr page to grab the full-size one.

Want more? Wikipedia has you covered!

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: Koinobori on Children's day

This date in Japan is called Tanabata, also know as the Star Festival, and these days is celebrated as a festive time to make wishes. The two lovers are Orihime, OH-REE-HE-MEH, (Vega) and Hikoboshi, HE-KO-BO-SHE, (Altair), and they are normally on opposite sides of the milky way, but on this one day they intersect.

There are many versions of the story, but there have a few things in common. Basically Orihime is the daughter of the Sky King and somehow she falls in love with Hikoboshi, a mere mortal. One or both of them then do something to piss her dad off and so in anger he separates them across the great river of Heaven and forbids them from ever meeting again. Orihime is so sad that her dad has a small change of heart and allows them to meet one day a year. Nice guy, eh?

Many places celebrate this event on July 7th, but a few hold to the old Japanese calendar (a lunar calendar) and so don’t celebrate it until August (the day changes every year, but always in August. Check wikipedia for more details than you could ever want). I have no idea when the actual intersection of Vega and Altair happens. Anyone know? Is it really on July 7th?

People generally celebrate this day by writing their wishes on small pieces of paper and hanging them on bamboo. The bamboo is sometimes set afloat on the a river or burned after the festival, tho this varies with each area.

Some pics from wikipedia:

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: Star Festival

Done? Good. Everyone is really getting into the mood. The past few days they have been playing the hina matsuri song everywhere. It’s a pleasant tune.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7L1uYEaEbY]

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: Hina Matsuri or Girl's festival