Children’s Day is fashioned after Japan’s national holiday “Kodomo-no-hi”, which is actually “Boys’ Festival” there. And yes, there is a “Girls’ Festival” in Japan to balance it out, but you know that wouldn’t fly over here, not two separate days. The Morikami’s festival included: hands-on activities such as making a giant carp streamer; gyotaku (fish painting); Japanese toy making; hina-shikishi (doll collage); making newspaper kabuto (warriors’ helmets); and origami (paper folding). Those words were taken from here.

Also in attendance was a Japanese candy maker who was incredible. The candy artist, Miyuki Sugimori, uses a taffy-like mixture of rice dough to mold animal shapes into candy. She is the only candy artist in Japan and only one of 15 candy artists in her country. She was trained by her grandfather in this ancient art. It was quite a show.

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