Man at Rest

2008-01-15

Yesterday was fun. I met up with a photographer friend in Kamakura (who often comments here). Then I came home and took the kids to a "Dondoyaki" -- kind of a neighborhood barbecue-style party. Last weekend, if you visited any rural places in or around Tokyo (or in greater Japan) you might have noticed large piles of straw. At the appointed time, people living in those areas bring all their "darumasan" (large wooden heads bought at temples for good luck) and New Year decorations and put them on the pile. Then they burn them and roast "dango" (rice balls) over the coals. Whether or not you bring "daruma" and New Year's decorations to burn (we didn't), it's a great community party. Well, the community that we went to is that way (the residents' families have been living on the same land for more than 400 years, so they really know each other). They gave us a bag of "dango" (because we didn't bring our own), free bowls of tasty soup, and helped me watch the kids. I ended up having lots of good conversations while the girls ran and played.

(UPDATE: I posted a photo from the dondoyaki over at JapanWindow -- here

Anyway, I have loads of photos that I took yesterday that I'm looking forward to posting!