eating

Brett Whelan enjoys her lunch. The menu provided an explanation of Minazuki for the Arlington delegation. "On June 30th, we'll be exactly halfway through the year. Here in Kyoto, events giving thanks for the past half year and praying for safety and health over the next six months are held at each shrine; these events are called Nagoshinoharai. On this day, we eat Minazuki, a Japanese sweet, following a long-established custom. Minazuki's triangle shape comes from a piece of ice. There's an old saying, "On June 30th, take a piece of ice from Himuro and eat it. This will prevent you from suffering from the summer heat. Himuru was a kind of ice storage room. At that time, however, ice was very precious in the summer because there weren't any refrigerators of today, so the people made ice-shaped sweets to eat instead. That's how Minazuki came about."