hatsu zekku : 初節句

celebration after celebration.

a few days before kou-chan turned one he also celebrated his first ever children’s day; an important “first” in japanese culture called “hatsu zekku” (初節句).

although children across japan and many parts of asia celebrate children’s day annually, the 1st and the 5th children’s day are considered big events in japan for boys.

kou-chan celebrated his hatsu zekku with both his grandparents and all but two of his uncle and aunties. pretty special in my book.

unfortunately uncle N from japan was away in some exotic location in east-asia on business and untie A; (my sister), was in paris on holiday.

a special dinner was out of the question as you don’t wanna be dining in some posh restaurant with a tired toddler, so instead we booked in for lunch at the top-notch shiba tofuya ukai (芝とうふ屋うかい); a beautiful japanese restaurant at the very foot of tokyo tower.







as the name suggests this fine establishment focuses on tofu.
they produce all their own tofu which is made at their own in-house workshop in the foothills of the okutama mountains. the beans (yup, tofu is made from beans) are grown in hokkaido.

the lovely ladies who were serving our private dining room didn’t seem to mind that kou-chan wanted to be the first to get his hands on every dish that they served.
in true japanese service they simply smiled, commented on what a cute little boy he was and gracefully shuffled around the tatami mat room in their modified kimono dress.




(above photos from shiba tofuya ukai website)

not only did k-chan and I have to interpret all being said between the grandparents (my parents only know “hello”, “thank you”, and how to count up to 10 in japanese, whereas k-chan’s parents, well her dad anyway, is good at mimicking phrases from hollywood movies like “oh no” and “come on baby” and “fu*k you”…), but we also had to control a wriggly kou-chan AND try to enjoy our meal.
because of such circumstances we do not have that many photos of the “big event”, but we do have some wonderful memories.






restaurant info:
shiba tofuya ukai
4-4-13
shiba-koen
minato-ku, tokyo
tel: (03) 3436-1028 (reservations recommended)
website

nearest station: akabanebashi station (oedo line) or kamiyacho station (hibiya line)