On November 15th SHICHI GO SAN will hit Japan. It is a holiday where literally 7, 5, and 3 year olds (or just young children) are celebrated and taken to temple to pray for health and long life. Boys aged five put on hakama for the first time in public.
Girls aged seven began using obi sash to tie their kimono, instead of cords.
And also they get to eat chitose-ame (longevity candy)- which I'm sure interests them much more then cords and hakama. Shaped like a stick it must, as best as I can figure, either taste like chocolate or peppermint (some sites say chitose-ame is red and white). Of note in the above pic is my new favorite kawaii character Peko-chan who reminds me of the American Cambells soup kids (only much cooler).
