Japanese Party -7yr- Kimomo Invites

My daughter adores Japanese culture, so I decided to have a Japanese party for her 7th birthday. 

I ordered komono-shaped invitations from Oriental Trading Company.  I hung a carp windsock in a tree in our front yard so guests could find our house (hanging carp flags is a tradition in Japan on Children's Day). 

Since we had many guests, I divided the kids into 3 groups and had stations.  The first station was a game station.  I am lucky enough to own a futon, so I folded it out and the kids sat on it to play a game. 

I filled a bowl with skittles and mini marshmallows.  The kids took turns trying to transfer the candy to another bowl USING CHOPSTICKS. 

At another station, the kids folded simple origami animals.  In the dining room, they learned about Japanese foods (I had samples of short grain rice, dried seaweed, green tea, and rice crackers for them to smell/touch).  We also had a little "tea ceremony."  We used apple juice (instead of tea), let them drink from real teacups, and had cookies. 

The kids watched a short Pokemon cartoon while they ate dinner (sticky white rice, fish sticks, goldfish crackers (goldfish are lucky in Japan), and a sesame soba noodles (buckwheat noodles).  Each kid got to eat with chopsticks (forks were provided, too). 

Paper lanterns and origami made cheap decorations for the party. 

We dressed in costume, and I had a few extra cheap kimonos for the kids to play dress-up with.  In each treat bag the kids got their own set of chopsticks, candy, bracelets with asian characters printed on the beads (oriental trading co.), and a folding paper fan (oriental trading co.).  

Our party was the "talk of the town" for days afterward!