Rhianna, Shinachan and John's Blog: Hina Doll Festival

March 3rd is the Hina Doll Festival in Japan. Homes with daughters (like ours) display dolls of an emperor and empress from the Heian Period ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hina_Matsuri) . In homes with more room (and with more of a budget for Hina dolls), the display collection can extend to members of the royal court as well.

It occurred to us the other day that we had still not gotten our Hina dolls, so we drove over to Asakusa-bashi, a traditional area of Tokyo, to buy our dolls from one of the shops there that specializes in the dolls (a store called Shuugetsu http://www.shugetsu-doll.co.jp/). We're really happy with the dolls we bought, and we hope Rhianna will like them as well when she gets old enough to appreciate them. Usually homes will display their Hina dolls until the day of the festival, which is tomorrow, and then take them down immediately, which is supposed to ensure that the daughter will be able to get married in the future. There is also a children's (boy's) festival in May in which homes display little samurai helmets and fly colorful flags decorated like carp.

Rhianna and the rest of us have been doing well recently. Rhianna has been enjoying standing up walking around the table in our room, and loves to crawl all over the apartment. She had her health checkup on Friday, and is healthy and fine. She's very tall (in the 95th percentile ) and light (25th percentile) for her age, and the doctor thinks she's doing well. Recently she likes to clap her hands (taught by mom) and is learning how to wave goodbye (we're still working on this now).

I will post some pictures from the past few weeks.

Pictures
Rhianna likes her new hair decoration

Standing up on the sofa

The Empress

Empress Pt. 2

Emperor

Royal Family

Our Hina Doll Set

Painting a commemorative board with Rhianna's name and Date of Birth

Commemorative Board

Modelling for mom's company