Happy Hinamatsuri!

The above picture is from The Mainichi Daily News Photo Journal. It features kindergarten children floating handmade hina dolls, with their wishes written on them, down the artificial Sakae River in Nagoya’s Naka Ward on Wednesday, March 3, in celebration of the Hinamatsuri, or Dolls Festival.

You can learn how to make your own origami hina or maybe just buy one that looks like Mao Asada!

News Blast

L.A.'s Little Tokyo looks to save struggling newspaper

Mickey Komai opens one of the leather-bound books stored in his Little Tokyo office and delicately turns the yellowed pages filled with Japanese and English script. Here in the pages of the bilingual newspaper his family has run for most of a century is the tumultuous story of Japanese Americans in Southern California. The Rafu Shimpo covered acts to ban Japanese from owning land, bringing over brides and eventually immigrating at all. "Why do people hate the Japanese?" the paper plaintively asked in one 1926 issue. The Rafu declared its "100%" allegiance to America after Japan's 1941 Pearl Harbor attack even after its publisher, H.T. Komai, was one of the first Los Angeles Japanese leaders taken into custody by the FBI.

Japan's jobless rate falls, spending increases

Japan's unemployment rate fell for the second straight month in January and household spending posted solid growth despite a decline in wages -- further signs of recovery in the world's second largest economy. The jobless rate fell to 4.9 percent from a revised 5.2 percent in December, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Tuesday. The result was better than the 5.1 percent expected by economists in a Kyodo News agency survey. "At least in the labor market, the worst is over," said Hideki Matsumura, senior economist at the Japan Research Institute.

Culture Bridges Korea-Japan Relations

Some foreign news outlets have shed light on the alleged bad blood between Koreans and Japanese based on Japan's annexation of Korea a century ago to interpret why Koreans were so attached to the 19-year-old. They said Koreans were overjoyed because Kim outperformed her Japanese rival, Mao Asada. But evidence supports the claim that the "Yu-na fever" has little to do with Koreans' deep-seated nationalistic antagonism against Japan. Some evidence indicates that Korea-Japan relations are improving.

Hinamatsuri This Sunday!

A company in Tokyo that creates Hinamatsuri dolls has created a special doll modeled after figure skater Mao Asada, who is skating in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. She'd have a hard time ice-skating in all those ceremonial robes!

Hinamatsuri, also known as the Doll Festival or Girls' Day in Japan, is a time to wish for the health and future happiness of young girls. Every March 3rd, most Japanese homes with young girls display hina dolls, decorate them with peach blossoms and offer the dolls special colored and diamond-shaped rice cakes, white sake and other items.

Japan Society has an annual family program to celebrate where you can learn and enjoy musical performances and songs, as well as festival-related snacks and drinks. Children and families participate in decorating ceremonial dolls (hina-ningyo) and can create their own hina dolls to take home. (Boys are welcome to participate too!)

Our program this year is already sold out! However, any unclaimed tickets will be released for resale at the beginning of the program, so if you're desperate to come, there's still hope! If you're looking for a quiet and creative way to celebrate Hinamatsuri at home, make sure to check out our recent post on making origamiceremonial dolls (hina-ningyo).