March 3rd is a special holiday in Japan called Girls Day or Hinamatsuri. It’s not big-deal holiday, but it’s an interesting tradition you can read more about here if you want to know more. Our pastor’s wife, Eri, came over on Tuesday evening with a couple of her English students and we prepared a traditional dinner that her mother always prepared on this holiday. It’s not something that everyone in Japan does or anything, but it was really fun to make these little dolls for dinner. The ingredients include: sushi rice, a thin egg omelet for the kimono, a quail egg for each of their heads, sesame seeds for eyes, seaweed hair, a carrot fan and crown for the girl, and a cucumber sword and hat for the boy. Here are the two that Claire and I made:

They were really tasty too! Promise! But when we called the boys (Keith, Adam, and Benjamin) down to eat their Hina dolls for dinner, they all made very strange faces at us. Only Adam was brave enough to voice what the other two were undoubtedly thinking as well:

“Mom, those are really cute. But I want regular dinner.”