Monday, February 11, 2008

National Foundation Day






February 11th is National Foundation Day here in Japan and is a national holiday. However not being a Japanese school we don't observe that many of the national holidays so on my way to work this morning I saw people getting ready for the day's celebrations. Many groups of people were preparing their 'Mikoshi' (portable shrines) which they would later carry upon their shoulders as they paraded down the street. I missed the parade itself as I was working but we could certainly hear the banging of drums and clanging of symbols.
We finished work early today so I could take Jazz and Dixie on a nice afternoon walk in the winter sun. We walked over to the 'pony park' and back and ended up in Komazawa dog run were we met three other beagles!

7 comments:

Girl Girl Hamster said...

Woh national foundation day looks very interesting

~ Girl girl

Xsara and Tani said...

happy holiday - too bad you don't get a day off work!

umekotyan said...

Good evening jazz.
Incidently, I was work today.
National Foundation Day that has been forgotten.
hahaha
The portable shrine is grandly shouldered.

from loved ume tyan

Girasol said...

Sounds an interesting holiday.

Urban Smoothie Read said...

happy national foundation day 2 u !!

Katherine and Pippa said...

Those portable shrines are exactly the same as the tronos that people carry here in Spain during Holy Week. How interesting.

Pippa

The Army of Four said...

I love it when you share your holidays with us! We learn so many cool cultural lessons from your blog!
Tail wags,
Storms