On May 5th, the Japanese celebrate Children’s Day by placing 鯉のぼりkoinobori carp wind streamers on the roof (terrace, in our case) with the number of fish to represent the members of the family. Our family in London has four humans and a cat, Blaze, who was originally not too happy about being represented by a fish. But old Blaze is now coming around since we told him that the koi carp were no ordinary fish but bold ones with powerful tail fins that help them swim rapidly upstream.
Children’s Day is the last day of the Golden Week series of festivities in Japan and because it has somewhat been subdued by the pandemic this year as last, here’s a little haiku cheer for families big and small all over the world:
Koinobori
Swim upstream carp family
Vibrant energy