Japanese Cherry Blossom Photos & Nyuenshiki

Tomorrow is my daughter's "nyuenshiki" -- that is, her entrance ceremony for "yochien" (Japanese preschool). We're really excited! It's hard to explain the feeling that you get when your kids are getting older. She's changed so much in the past year, and she continually amazes us. I'll post some pictures from the ceremony very soon. It's mercifully short, about 30 minutes, since three year olds don't have long attention spans. I'll probably spend the whole time juggling my camera while trying to keep our one year old twins out of trouble.

Despite being sick with a fever, my wife has been busy for the past three nights preparing. Some time ago the school gave all the moms a highly detailed list of the items each child needs for the first day. The list included precise dimensions for a number of bags that the moms are supposed to sew themselves. The bags all must be exactly the same, but the choice of fabrics and the skill with which they are cut and sewn is up to each mom. My wife had to make a cup bag (for my daughter's plastic blue drinking cup), a shoe bag (for her indoor shoes), and one big bag for her papers and stuff. Tonight she's busy will all kinds of little detailed tasks on the list, like sewing nametags in certain places, labeling every little item, etc. She just finished writing my daughters name on every individual crayon in the box (about 20). This is a country where the concept of "detailed instructions" is sometimes carried to new heights.

Preparing for yochien is apparently an annual ritual across Japan. New yochien moms, most of whom haven't sewn a bit since some class in high school, work like mad trying to sew and prepare in a way that befits the love and pride they feel for their daughters and sons. Of course, they also want to "wow" the other moms. Some produce wonderful creations, while others pay to have the bags made by professionals. Others wish they had paid someone when it's all over. In our case, I think my wife remembered her high school lessons well. My daughter's bags are all "Disney princess" themed. Personally, I think it would be funny to get some fabric with a fake Luis Vuitton "LV" on it, but I'm sure some of the moms wouldn't be laughing.

If you enjoy the Japanese Cherry blossom photos above, you can see more in my Cherry blossom gallery (click here). I didn't take that many photos of blossoms this year. I'm having too much fun taking pictures of people recently, and you can expect more of those coming soon.

Posted by jw at April 8, 2004 11:20 PM