Hina matsuri (Girls' Day)

Yesterday was Girls' Day. I'm still not sure what we do on hina matsuri. Neither does Junji. But we're pretty certain that there are dolls involved cos you see them in the department stores, along with their atrocious price tags (i.e. up to seven digits in yen!!!), weeks ahead of the festival. Usually the girl's maternal grandparents present hina dolls as a gift. Bless the grandparents who have several granddaughters!!! In a situation where the maternal grandparents are not Japanese, the paternal grandparents would usually take on the hina doll buying role. Minori inherited the hina dolls from Junji's aunt though. On the day itself, mommy is supposed to make some kind of sushi and other kinds of artificially colored pink goodies. In our case, we ordered in pepperoni pizza -- Minori can't eat sushi yet, I figured -- and Minori had some corn that came as a side dish with the pizza, which she LOVED! I hope when she grows up, she won't go asking her friends how their families celebrated their first hina matsuris.