Everyone dolled up! 1-4H

Everyone dolled up! 1-4H

[Shrine]

Aya: Utano-senpai, Mito-senpai, sorry to keep you waiting!

Mit: It's alright, Aya-chan, we only just came here ourselves.

Uta: Aya-san, sorry to make you come all the way here to help. Getting the equipment ready was our mission, after all.

Aya: No, you don't get to see shrine equipment every day, so I'm looking forward to that.

Mit: We have permission from the priest, so tell us if you find anything useful.

Aya: Okay!

Uta: First things first, we need a bright red carpet. Grande-sized, so we could put it over the shrine's stone stairs.

Mit: Actually, I already prepared that before you came.

Aya: That's our Mito-senpai! We'll also need paper lanterns to light the place up.

Mit: Yeah, about that. There are some in the shrine inventory, that's true...

Uta: Mii-chan, is there a problemo?

Mit: If we put normal-sized paper lanterns next to our life-sized dolls, wouldn't they be too tiny to stand out?

Uta: Well that's a simple one! There are stone lanterns on the shrine's stairs, let's decorate those!

Aya: Ah! I think that's a very good idea! How should we decorate them?

Uta: I already have the concept in my head. Let's hollow out some big pumpkins from my fields and put candles inside!

Mit: Utanon, those would be Halloween decorations... Not the best fit for Hinamatsuri.

Uta: You think? I always thought the paper lanterns on doll display stands looked like pumpkins.

Uta: I thought that was the origin of Halloween...

Aya: Huh. So Hinamatsuri lanterns are pumpkin-shaped in Suwa?

Mit: No, they're the same as here. They just looked that way to Utanon...

Uta: The dolls and stands are pretty much the same as in Shikoku, but in Suwa the whole town puts up Hinamatsuri displays, so it's lively.

Aya: I see! If the whole town puts them up, does that mean there are Hina dolls everywhere?

Uta: Yeah. Things like old Hina dolls passed down, and nowadays there are a lot of tsurushi-bina too.

Aya: Tsurushi-bina?

Mit: It's a bunch of dolls connected by one string. They look really pretty when there's a lot of them lined up.

Aya: I see. I'd like to see that!

Uta: Aya-san, I'd like to show you how a Hinamatsuri in Suwa looks like sometime!