On Sunday Noah turned 100 days old. In Australia this might not be seen as an important milestone but in Japan it certainly is.
Several weeks ago my MIL bought over a set of plates for Noah to use for this special day- they were more “modern” than the usual I imagine and his have little buses, trains and cars on them with blue trim. Quite quite actually but they are made from porcelain so we won`t be using them much since they could break but I guess they are more of a keepsake anyway. I was going to do the ceremony here at our house but in the end my brother and Gemma were going to be in town so MIL/FIL invited us there to do it and Shun`s brother, and his wife and grandma all joined us.
When a baby turns 100 days old (I have heard sometimes it is when they are 120 days old as well) you celebrate “okui- hajime” which means first food, or begin eating. Of course Noah is not quite ready for solid foods yet but we pretend fed him the special food which included baked sea bream (Tai) and rice steamed with beans (sekihan, common celebratory rice often prepared and eaten before starting a new stage in ones life like elementary school, university etc). MIL told me that often there would be pickled plum as well (umeboshi) but that she didn`t have any in the fridge even though she thought she had. HAHA.
A bit of research online showed that the fish represents happiness (hope the baby finds happiness), the pickled plum represents the hope that the baby will grow old and full of wrinkles and have a long life (like the pickled plum!) and the rice, as previously mentioned is often used at celebrations.. Apparently they also usually have a pebble served with the food (?) in the hope that the babies teeth will get strong so that they can eat anything including pebbles if need be.
Noah was in a good mood Sunday and while the photos don`t necessarily show it but he did try to “lick” the food when we tried to feed it to him. I used the special chopsticks that were given to us at him omiyamairi (first shrine visit) which are made from wood and a bit smaller than usual chopsticks.
More photos are in the set here.
Still to come in blog catch-up- Our trip to Hakone!
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I am just a twenty something Aussie girl living in Chiba, Japan with my Japanese husband trying to make sense of the crazy Japanese world we live in! We welcomed our first son in December 2009 (Noah) and a second son in January 2011, 2 months premature (Shion). I am working hard at raising them to be confident, bilingual, happy kids!
We didn`t do the 100 days things.
When we went to the shrine they had the rock thing that you could buy for the teeth, it wasn`t a little pebble though it was quite large. I suppose you wouldn`t want baby swallowing it on accident.
Our shrine gave us a bib as our gift.
Wow! I can’t believe he’s 100 days old already! Your whole pregnancy seemed to go by so fast, and now little Noah seems to be growing so fast too! He’s so adorable!
I’m glad your brother was able to be here for the celebration! Can’t wait to read about your trip to Hakone!
Happy 100 days Noah!! I can’t believe it has only been 100 days though. I can’t imagine him not being around anymore
I think your PIL are fantastic in regards to keeping up with Japanese culture. My PIL seriously don’t do anything. I missed out ‘ino no hi’ because they don’t do it apparently. Baby N won’t be having her omiyamairi either. I haven’t asked about the 100 day celebration but I bet they won’t be participating it that either… meh, it’s not my culture so I don’t really care but I thought it would be nice for baby N to experience it anyway
Can’t wait to hear how your trip to Hakone with your brother and Gem went!
120 days in much better for food!
ahh too cute!
They have the same tradition here in China but we didn’t do it since we don’t really have in-laws or anyone to celebrate that sort of thing with and my husband is extremely “meh” about festivals and traditional stuff. In China the 100 days thing is more for show anyhow, you usually have a big feast and invite all your friends and family and show off your baby and since we have like 0 Chinese friends in Beijing there would be no point.
It is great that you guys keep these tradition going with Noah!
Happy 100 days!
Must be another dialect thing- we call it okui-zome…
So cute! And the modern crockery set? The salespeople must be pushing them on obaachan Japan wide- we got a Brer Rabbit one….
Nay- my ILs are too far away to do this stuff and K couldn’t care less so I do it my way. I want a picture for their album. I didn’t so everything by the book but I do it my way and take a picture. I say go for it!
Jessica- I’ve been to a Chinese one and wow, what a spectacle!
I never knew about the pepple and teeth thing! I love sekihan! Cute pic of Noah and Holly Chan!
Yay- happy 100days to Noah. He looks so super cute in all the photos. And he does look like he enjoyed his 100day celebration too