Shichi Go San

Japan celebrates children of the ages 3 and 5 for boys, and 3 and 7 for girls on November 15. Because it is impossible to rent a kimono at that time, we went to the shrine and took our photos early.
Shichi Go San (literally translates to 7-5-3) requires you to go to the shrine for a blessing. We just went for pictures. Many people do it that way, and I saw quite a few of the boys dressed up in Western style suits.William, being a golden haired boy, and in full Japanese regalia, was quite the center of attention. People were taking his pictre and saying 'how cute' and being amazed an American family had a kid there for Shichi Go San. For those of you who don't know William well, he hates attention, unless he's hamming it up and wants to be silly. So, we have many pictures of a very silly boy.

Monday was a holiday for the Japanese. It was 'Culture Day' and we had many cultural experiences. First, I drove to a Buddhist Temple in Kamakura. Realizing my mistake, I had to ask around to find out where the nearest shrine was. Finally, only in Japanese, we finally got someone who gave us a small map, with directions.
Kamakura is a very historic town with many temples and shrines. On Japanese holidays, it's a zoo. So, the going was slow. By the time we got to the shrine and parked, William was out of humor. We did get enough good photos to consider it a success. But the cute girls 3 and 7 whose parents wanted a pic of them with William, was a no-go. We met them again, back at the rental shop, returning their kimono at the same time.

There are different layers. There is a white shirt undergarment, a black kimono, and the pants and the decorative silk overcoat are called hakama and haori. The dressing process was really quite elaborate, and took time to do it okay.

It costed about $250.00 to rent the whole caboodle.


Then, our 'cultural exchange' began. The traffic was SO BAD, that we eventually went left, instead of going right and back the way we came. On the little map we now had, Tim could see some roads that we could go back to town on. Well, the goat paths we saw didn't look promising. We kept going, hoping for some sign. Finally, we found one that said to follow on to the toll road. Well, it didn't tell us how FAR we'd have to go to get that accomplished! So, we stopped twice, and in my awful Japanese (I understand straight, and turn left and right, and can ask how many kilometers) we had enough 'cultural exchange' to indeed get back on the toll road (highway) to Yokosuka.

Meanwhile, from the back seat, William makes the observation that we should have brought our GPS for Japan. Yes, William, we should have. And then I looked at Tim, who was sitting stoically next to be, to judge whether he had encouraged William to make this observation, because I KNEW he was thinking it! He spent good money to get one for me, but when I know where I'm going, I don't use it. I wasn't expecting to have to go the wrong way. But then, what would 'Culture Day' be without a bit of 'cultural interaction?'