Early Thanksgiving Day Greeting and my Mother's Name;

Today, I realized a little connection of my late mother's name and Thanksgiving Day for the first time. And brought back memories with her again :-)

When I first learned about this Harvest Festival, I remember thinking about the importance of having gratitude towards God. 

In Japan, coming Monday is Labor Thanksgiving Day which is the modern name for an ancient cereals (rice, barley/wheat,  etc) known as Niiname-sai (新嘗祭).

Traditionally, it celebrated the year's hard work; during the Niiname-sai ceremony, the Emperor would dedicate the year's harvest to kami (God in the religion of Shinto), and taste the rice for the first time.　 My late mother's name is "嘗代・Namiyo". As you might notice, the same kanji-character is used. Named after this festival by my grandparents.  This is the link page about this.

This finding was kind of fascinated me, because it seemed as if I found a connection with friends in western culture.  I know it is a little early and don't have much idea how you celebrate family gathering. But especially to my Friends in America;  

  Hope you have wonderful Thanksgiving day with your family next Thur.

(No post about this topic next week. Thank you SO much for reading and wishing you a wonderful weekend and preparation for your holiday season goes smoothly.)

Local Festival;

Header I used for this Post

(posted; Japanese culture page)　
*At 水分神社 'mikumari-shrine'*

Along side Koto-River, there is an old shrine made to pray for the agricultural irrigation. For the Autumn Festival there, one of my husband's band member was invited with his guitar group to perform for one of the events there. 

Sacred Ritual;

Priestess’s Dance and ancient Japanese court music　'雅楽，gagaku'
I loved the sound very much as not many chances to enjoy them.

Several performances at this event;

Kind of intriguing to hear the sound of The Ventures for this occasion:-)

Mom, portable shrine is scary;

We all ducked under the shrine.
This is for having healthy year...   Oh, I DO hope so!　

Rice cake '餅, Mochi' throwing which is one of the ritual in Japan as well.

*For the last, portable shrine got into the river as this shrine is 'God of water' *

Shrine crossed the bridge and we saw them off；

Linking this post to "Outdoor Wednesday", "WATW", and "GoodFences", 
"Saturday's critters" "Scenic Weekends",  "MosaicMonday", "Our World Tuesday"

I'm trying to get used to my distorted right eye and not to forget UV protection for my face. Feeling guilty not having been able to return to kind comments...  wish to have normal life back. See You Soon♪

Thank you very much for stopping by; I always appreciate your sweet visits;

(About my header; sorry if unmatched, changed for the newer post）

From Camellia Festival (part 3)

  *Bridges and Birds at the back of the park on the Festival day*

Behind the building of the park, there is a wide greenery and lake in Ejio-park next city. After all the event was over around 4 pm, I strolled around the lake and sought for things I could take pictures for links :-)    (my 2 previous posts are about the festival.)

People were feeding for the carps, ducks were not close to them;
Name of this bridge,  'Bridge of the Adventure'

Some pictures of birdies I took in a hurry;  I kept my husband wait to go home  p:-)

Found a Meadow Bunting, Oh My! for the first time.　Unfortunately so far away and not good picture. We call them 'Hoo-jiro, 頬白' which means 'cheek-white'

      Linking this post to  

          "Good Fences", "Saturday's critters", "id-rather-b-birdin"  "MosaicMonday", 

                        and  "Nature Notes"

So sorry for my absence to my dear friends.  I'll be able to visit you after I attend springtime Buddhist sermon tomorrow.  I had a slight cold (runny nose), hope you all are doing well at the turn of the season.  See you in your blog till next week♪

From Camellia Festival (part 1) ;

My husband's band group attended "Camellia Festival" held in the next city, this year again. There were some activities & events both inside and outside the park. We enjoyed varieties of dances from Many Dancing Groups.  

      *Some art works at the entrance of the room 

                     which varieties of camellias were  displayed*

      *My husband's band group and some dance performances*

Footage(hope the right word)is so bad again :-)

Very short video from the last part of the Japanese popular song.

There were many flea market stand as well.

I LOVED to see this sweet girl and the dog♪

                           Linking this post to  "MosaicMonday",  "Our World Tuesday" 

Thank you very much for stopping by; I always appreciate your sweet visits;

We are having weather so called  '三寒四温; alternation of three cold and four warm days'. Bit hard season to control body temperature;   Take Care of Yourselves♪

On Stage;

Band Group my husband involved was on stage for a Music Event called "Arakan Festival"  ←link to my last year's post; no stage appearance last year.

This concert is performed mainly by middle-aged and senior adults. In Japan, we call 60 years old "kanreki, 還暦".  The title "Ara-Kan" is from shortened word mixed with English "Around Kanreki → Ara-Kan" 

Unlike last year, I missed to see some of the performances. But I was lucky to take video of the same vibrandoneon player playing the different music from last year. 

       (I pasted the clear You-tube video of his playing the instrument last year)

Sorry for the bad quality of the image of video again. Asking Nikon's staff didn't help. I was told if seeing through the pc video file is ok, no way they can help me.  Haha, also I could't make the second one vertical way.   Might be the last time of uploading video p:-)

*Fun to see them rehearsing, and some other performances*

*There was an art exhibition going on in the hall*

Dolls of old fire men;  "火の用心,　caution for the fire"

scooping loach

This is the hall from outside and the little Dusky Thrush see us off :-)

          Linking this post to "Our World Tuesday" 

After I finished writing this post, I found my try to posting comment on my own blog succeeded,Yey♪  Please let me visit you from tomorrow, Good Night from Japan.