Girls' Day in Japan

Sydney and I joined our friends Jocelyn and Mel this week for a Girls' Day outing. March 3 is Hina-matsuri (or Girl's Day) in Japan and we wanted to do something fun together, so we took the train to visit the Yokohama Doll Museum.

The museum displays hundreds of dolls from all over the world in a three-story building. But our girls mostly enjoyed playing at each of about twelve hands-on stations around the first floor. Each station had different kinds of dolls from around the world.

Sydney really got into the pretend play. She played with the wooden animals. She put the baby to sleep.

And apparently thought she was the curator. She explained to Jocelyn and me that "you see, this one has blue feathers." (Well, as we all know, she often owns the part of being "in charge," I just finally caught it on camera.)

Some of our favorite dolls were the Japanese ones like this doll in kimono given to the museum by the mayor of Yokohama, Hello Kitty, and Monchichi.

And it was great fun seeing some dolls that mean a lot to me and made me nostalgic for my childhood. These Greek dolls reminded me of some given to me by my Grandma. And there were some great American classics, like Raggedy Ann, which always reminds me of when my mom took the clothes off our Raggedy Ann and put me in them as one of my first Halloween costumes. There was also an American Girl, Star Wars figures, etc.

There were so many dolls from all over the world, my only clue I was in Japan was the special Hina-matsuri exhibit for Girls' Day (and we weren't allowed to take photos of it; here's one with just the Emperor and Empress dolls.)

And I didn't notice any Madame Alexander or original Cabbage Patch Kids. Not that I'm about to donate any of the several I have stored in my Mom's house. I do have two girls. Instead I thought I'd add to our "collection"; I bought a tiny ceramic Japanese tea set for Sydney to use one day in the dollhouse my PopPop made for my sister and me.