Yanagawa Hina Matsuri Sagemon Meguri Festival

Konnichiwa. Dah lama tak bawak u all jalan2 pusing Japan kan?. Lately my blog entry asyik duk bercerita pasal myself je, so today I'm gonna share one more Japanese Custom & Culture with you which is known as The Yanagawa Hina-Matsuri Sagemon Meguri (Yanagawa Doll's Festival). Last year, I've already wrote about the history of Hina Matsuri *click here*, so for those of you who are interested to find out more about the history of Hina Matsuri, kindly read that post la ye.

This Yanagawa Doll's Festival is held annually at Yanagawa. This city is located in the Chikugo region in the southern part of Fukuoka Prefecture *about 2 jam jugak lah perjalanan dengan kereta* huhuhu. Yanagawa offers a boat rides journey down the canal which is the most popular attraction among tourists visiting Yanagawa. The excursion boats take about an hour to make the trip down the 4km-long canal, and the scenery is excellent during all four seasons. But then, since we went there at the end of winter; tak banyak lagi la bunga2 dan daun2 pada pokok2 crimson foliage di sepanjang Sungai Yanagawa ni.

The boat travels gently downstream past those crimson foliage trees along the river banks. *masa ni siap mummy rasa nak nyanyi lagu "row row row your boat gently down the stream" kat baby SN* ngeeeee. It is wonderful if you get to experience the Donko-bune boat ride and enjoy a slow trip through the canals all around the town as it is said that you'll feel the history of the canals and the beauty of the surrounding nature. However we didn't hop-on the boat as I don't think it's possible for baby SN to sit still inside the boat, *karang tak pasal2 terbalik bot, naya je..dah le mummy & daddy tak reti berenang* eheh.

*baby SN tengah mencuba untuk pujuk mummy bawak dia naik boat eheh*

Talking about the custom pulak, Sagemon (hanging dolls) are a custom that Japanese will do when a baby girl is born. The relatives and close associates make dolls with colorful fabric workmanship unique to the Yanagawa region and display them on both sides of a tiered doll stand called a Hinadan.These dolls can be seen at all of the tourist facilities in the city during the Yanagawa Hina Matsuri Festival held from the February 11 through April 3 every year. During the festival season, you can find gorgeous Hina dolls and pretty decorations all around the town.

As we didn't went for the boat ride, we've decided to walk around the city and had come across to the Doll Museum: "Ohana" which was built in 1697 as a villa for the Tachibana family, the lord of Yanagawa Castle. It is now used as a history museum and also features a restaurant and inns. *Tapi kami tak masuk pun dalam muzium, posing kat luar je eheh*.

*outside of the Ohana museum*

The sight of little girls in bright kimono riding on river boats is supposed to be the main attraction on that particular day. But, since we went a little bit late to the place..we had missed to watch the girls wearing kimono riding the boat. However, we've bumped into two cute-cheeky little girls wearing kimono and mummy pun tergedik2 lah suruh baby SN posing di sisi awek Jepun tu *kawaiiiiii ne?*. At least, these two little girls has give us the chance to enjoy this colorful girls' festival walaupun agak terlewat tiba di tempat kejadian huhuhu.

*baby SN posing macho di sisi dua awek Jepun yang kawaii*

These city of water, with multiple canals running throughout the town, was converted from what were once moats around the castle. Yanagawa and its canals look different in every season, and the Japanese said if you’re lucky you might find a bride on the Donko-bune boat! And guess what?..Yup, mind you.......we are lucky!. On the way back to the parking lot, the boat-man told me that there's a wedding ceremony on that day and the bride will pass through us just in a few minutes. Thus we took the chance to wait for the bride to congratulates them *walaupun tak kenal, tetap sibuk2 nak enter-frame* ekekek.

*the bride on the Donko-bune boat*

There's 2 obaachan sitting next to me and baby SN which were the relatives to the bride. They were waving, shouting and launching the popping ribbon while the bride's boat passes through the bridge. Lepas tu, nenek2 ni ternampak baby SN duk tengok ribbon yang diorang pegang...terus diorang bagi ribbons tu kat baby SN kui3x.

*baby SN tengah jakun tengok ribbons yang nenek bagi*

We ended the trip to Yanagawa by enjoying the hot-spring pool situated nearby to the car-park area. Baby SN seems to enjoy the experience of watching the boat ride and putting his feet inside the hot-spring pool. Mummy & daddy pun enjoy this trip walaupun mula2 mummy merajuk dengan daddy ngeeeee. Luckily, daddy bawak mummy & baby SN to this place....so, merajuk tu slowly fade away ekekekeke.

*cheeky little boy enjoying his first hot-spring experience*



*candid shot by daddy while mummy is showing the cherry blossom flower to baby SN*

Pssssssttt : merajuk punya pasal sampai tak sedar tudung senget benget wakakaka, lepas tengok gambar baru perasan. Padan muka I! ngeeeeee.


#info gathered from : khaosan fukuoka, jpntourism, japan travel guide