Happy こどもの日 (Children’s Day)!
Here is a super simple animation and a song using only homemade instruments
(balloon bongo, tin foil kazoo, washers & paper plate tambourine).
About Children’s Day via Wikipedia:
“Children’s Day (こどもの日 / Kodomo no hi) is a Japanese national holiday which takes place annually on May 5, the fifth day of the fifth month, and is part of the Golden Week. It is a day set aside to respect children’s personalities and to celebrate their happiness.
Before this day, families raise the carp-shaped koinobori flags (carp because of the Chinese legend that a carp that swims upstream becomes a dragon, and the way the flags blow in the wind looks like they are swimming), one for each boy (or child), display a Kintarō doll usually riding on a large carp, and the traditional Japanese military helmet, kabuto. “
Today is the start of Golden Week here in Japan.
We hope you all can have lots of nice adventures (hopefully outside) this week.
Today we found a new favorite hangout in the woods by our house.
Happy Setsubun!
from wikipedia:
Setsubun: Bean-Throwing Festival (or Bean-Throwing Ceremony) is the day before the beginning of spring in Japan… accompanied by a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the former year. This special ritual is called mamemaki (literally “bean throwing”).
Roasted soybeans are thrown either out the door or at a member of the family wearing an Oni (demon or ogre) mask, while the people say “Demons out! Luck in!” (鬼は外! 福は内! Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!).
Giant snowballs!
January 29, 2012:
A totally perfect Sunday!
- woke up late
- spent the morning outside with Niko
- had a break on the hammock with our niece Mone
- sushi for lunch
- then to the science museum
- capped by a long leisurely (4 1/2 hour!) dinner at Nunc Nusq (one of our new favorites places)
January 19, 2012:
Niko broke his leg!
He was practicing “extreme kick jumps” from the bed, and didn’t land so well on one of them.
Taking photos the next day, I found some shots from minutes before the accident stored on my camera. (Scrolling through made a pretty amusing before & after sequence.)
By the evening, Niko seemed totally pain-free and adapted to his new cast.
Our friend Matt shared a nice outlook with us:
“In the long run, broken bones are nice character markers - a good indication of an adventurous and risk-taking spirit!”
January 10, 2012:
Last year I read (and liked) The Andy Warhol Diaries.
It is a rather long and sometimes tedious account of his everyday life, mixed with socialite parties and gossip. And, of course, constant references to the society page in the paper.
Well, for the first time in my life, I made it into the society part of Nagoya’s newspaper.
And, with hand gestures so profound they seemed to be impossible to catch with a slow shutter speed too. Extreme gesticulations!
January 6, 2012:
Back in Nagoya, I popped into our neighborhood bookshop to to pick up a copy of Sotokoto Magazine. The current issue has 12 pages of photos by one of our very best friends, Patrick Tsai.
Five years ago, we spent a month with Patrick traveling around the US. We were playing shows. He was shooting photos. You can see some of the nice adventures we had in this Flickr set.
We weren’t really interested in doing a typical band tour, so in between shows we camped out in the California wilderness, swam in rivers and tested out tree swings.
For his Sotokoto photo project, Patrick spent three days on an uninhabited island, living under a plastic tarp, catching fish and taking a shower with by pouring water into an upside umbrella with holes poked in it.
Not only is Patrick one of our favorite photographers, he is also one of our favorite people! And his blog, Talking Barnacles, is one of the most honest accounts of everyday life I have ever read. Highly recommended!
January 3, 2012:
We picked up a couple of nice sweaters and latest issue of Monocle at an excellent shop in Seoul called ÅLAND. After we rung up, I found out that their shopping bags look a lot like the design of our Lullatone Spinning Mobile Kit, too. Nice coincidence!
January 3, 2012:
On the night of 2nd we flew into Seoul for a little New Year holiday.
Early in the next morning we took a trip to Lotte World, our first family trip to an amusement park.
It has the fastest merry-go-round I have ever seen. Everyone is required to wear a seat belt on it!
In the night, I was killing time in a cafe while Yoshimi was shopping. I struck up a conversation with older gentleman sitting next to me, and over some beers we started to talk about music. It turns out that he was one of the singers of Tokyo Romantica who had some million selling hits in Japan in the 60s.
One of my goals of 2012 is talking to more strangers, and this was a nice start to it!
January 2, 2012:
After his recent obsession with Angry Birds, I taught Niko how to make a slingshot out of a stick and a rubber band. I’m hoping to show him that real life can be way more exciting than video games, but… well, I have to admit that Angry Birds is pretty awesome and addictive.
January 1, 2012
We took an early morning trip to Fuwa Fuwa World.
(Fuwa Fuwa is the Japanese onomatopoeia for “light, airy & fluffy”)
Nagoya’s baseball dome was transformed into an inflatable jumping paradise!
After a great deal of bouncing around like a bunny on springs,
Niko got to meet some of his favorite Ultraman characters, too.
Very awesome start to an awesome new year!
Happy New Year!
Here in Japan, people send special postcards on New Year’s Day to their friends called nengajo. The cards often feature the Chinese Zodiac animal of the year. 2012 is the year of the dragon (which is the hardest one to illustrate).
Here is a little nengajo from all of us to all of you.
Let’s make 2012 the awesome-est year ever!
今年もよろしくお願いします。
