IT'S OTUKIMI! MOON VIEWING DAY IN GIFU!

IT'S OTUKIMI! MOON VIEWING DAY IN GIFU!

It's Otokimi or Moon Viewing Day in Gifu! Tonight everyone will be outside, looking up at the full moon to see the bunny making rice cakes in the moon.

Moon Viewing or Otukimi is done in a rather quiet manner. It's a custom introduced to Japan from China during the Nara and Heian Periods, (710 - 1185). Traditionally, susuki (pampas grass not a motorcycle) or other autumn flowres are decorated in a vace and dango (dumplings) and stoimo (taro potatoes) are offered to the moon on an alter. People look up at the moon, enjoying the beauty quetly. It is also a way of celebrating the autumn harvest.

Suzuki

Otukimi no Wagashi (Moon Viewing Cake

Ebi Senbei - rice cakes with a bit of shrimp! Oishii desu yo!

If you have the time, please go out for at least a few minutes tonight and enjoy nature and the view, even if you don't have all these great treats. See if you can see the bunny! Oh! That's for kids? Well, try to be a kid for just a few minutes - it's probably something we should do more of.