Children’s Day (Kodoma no Hi) is a public holiday on 5th May and it celebrates happy and healthy children and expresses gratitude to their mothers. Up until 1948, Girls’ Day was two months earlier (but not a public holiday) than Boys’ Day, when Boys’ Day was changed to become Children’s Day. However, all the decorations – carp streamers with Samurai motifs relate to boys not girls!

The display at Tokyo Tower is particularly impressive … 333 carp kites, to denote the tower’s height of 333 metres, are hoisted. I must admit that I didn’t stand there counting them!

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Carp kites flying in a small park & carp kites hung outside a private house.