This November I don't really have anything to talk about, so I'm posting a couple of pictures of my kids which are only remotely related to the topic I cover on this blog; Japanese culture, music and video games.
Around this time of the year, schools in Japan have a kind of festival intended for students and parents to get together and know each other better, man! Parents involved in the PTA help plan an event where they have food and game stalls. The school is open to the locals "open-house" style, and parents and students can visit all the different classrooms, which have been decorated for the occasion.
My kids attend a local kindergarten, where one of the stalls has different character masks. Actually, if you go to almost any "matsuri" in Japan, there's bound to be a stand that sells only masks, and the masks can vary from traditional "hyottoko" (puckered old man) and "otafuku" (laughing lucky lady), to masks depicting characters kids are into at the time.
A mask shop at a festival
"Otafuku" and "Hyottoko" masks...
The stall at our school happened to have Mario and Pikachu masks, so we bought one of each for our younger boys.
Actually, without wanting to, this random filler post actually became about Japanese culture! Perhaps I'll expand on this topic and talk more about Japanese festivals and masks in the future!
