I had a fun day today. I went to check out the Cherry Blossom festival in Japantown, and ended up watching 1) taiko drumming 2) japanese court dances 3) a demonstration in Ikebana the art of japanese floral arrangement and 4) a martial arts demonstrations from two dojos.

We had many japanese neighbours on our block, so I grew up with japanese culture. Our next door neighbour always gave up japanese sweets (they're not very sweet) on New Years day, and other japanese holidays. On Boy's Day May 5, they call it Children's Day in Japan now, our japanese neighbours flew carp/koi fish streamers from bamboo poles. I always thought if I had a son, I would celebrate Boy's Day and fly carp/koi fish for him. As a child, I always loved the carp fish flying on May 5.

Girl's Day is March 3, and on that day our japanese neighbor always gave me a handmade japanse doll.

We also had a japanese television station in Hawaii with subtitles, and I sometimes watched the shows. I still remember some of their tv movies I saw growing up, which were mostly about the effects of the nuclear bomb on the families of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One show that I remember was about how all the children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were sent into the mountains before the nuclear bomb attack, and came home afterwards to find out they had only one parent or were orphans.

In the movie, one of the children now grown up remembered vividly what her life was like before the bomb attack and how happy and rich it was, and how depressing and impoverished her life was afterwards. Her dad was so shell shocked, he never talked about what happened or her mother's death either. He just worked very hard to take care of the both of them. It was such a sad, sad show.

You don't see shows on American TV, where they dwell so much years later on the effects of war on our country. Maybe with 9/11 they will, but I wonder if they will show it on TV all the time like they used to in Japan.

I'm too young to remember, but I wonder if they has tv shows about what life was like after World War 2 and the Vietnam War in America. But then America was not attacked in those wars.

I love japanese food as well, even more so than chinese food, only because I grew up eating japanese food more than I ate chinese food.

The japanese culture is so full of contradictions. On the hand, much of japanese culture is so refined, ordered and delicate like Ikebana, the tea ceremony, japanese court dances and bonsai. But then there's the wild and tribal stuff, like sumo wrestling, which is so fun to watch, and taiko drumming. On the one hand, you have the big noisy cities like Tokyo, and on the other hand, you have the buddhist temples and giant peaceful buddha statue at Kamakura.

I've never been to Japan, and I'd love to go. Everybody I know that's gone says it's just an amazing place. Perhaps my next vacation will be to Japan. I wonder how much this trip will set me back.