Hinamatsuri

Yesterday I had a very busy day and a counseling with one of my oldest students. She is wonderful, but a very low level speaker. Sometimes we have a hard time communicating but she is always warm and welcoming. She speaks of her "head's memory" being bad when she is explaining how she studies but forgets everything on the way to class. Ha.

So, she is the sweetest lady ever. Today, after counseling, she pulled a small bag out of her purse. She explained to me on March 3rd, which is the third day of the third month of the year, it is called Hinamatsuri. 

This day is also known as 'Girl's Day'. She said with a huge smile, that even though this day is celebrated by young girls, she is just an old girl and I am still young enough to enjoy it. :) (however, other students have told me that only girls much younger celebrate this day). 

On this day, girls use ornamental dolls on red hi-mosen (stairs...or display. Hard to explain) to represent the Emperor and Empress, traditional court, and so on from the Heian period. The girls often dress up in kimonos and take photos with the dolls. 

There are many things related with this custom and this day that she told me about and other students helped her explain. If you are interested more in it, please make sure to look it up.

The girls here have very fond memories of their days celebrating Hinamatsuri. 

So, out of her bag, she pulled two tiny dolls, one man, one woman. These dolls are to represent the Emperor and Empress. They were made by her friend and they are a very advanced form of origami. They were just so beautiful, and I was so touched by this gift, that I felt I needed to blog about it and post pictures out of respect for her and the custom. 

It is extraordinary that even though we can't always communicate well, she still found a way to connect to me and to teach me something. I only hope that I can be as good of a teacher to her as many of the students have been to me about the customs and cultures of Japan. I have so many students who come to class each day to learn, but also to teach me, their sensei, something about Japan. I appreciate them more than they could possibly know.