Tanabata
Has it seriously been a year since last Tanabata!? Unbelievable. Caitlin's been gone a year, Marisa's visit was a year ago, I haven't been home in a year. Bizarre.
It's rainy season here, but we lucked into good weather yesterday, so Orihime and Hikoboshi were able to meet. ;)
Tanabata (七夕, meaning "Evening of the seventh") is a Japanese star festival, derived from the Chinese star festival, Qi Xi (七夕 "The Night of Sevens")．
It celebrates the meeting of Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). The Milky Way, a river made from stars that crosses the sky, separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. Since the stars come out at night, the celebration is held at night.
In present-day Japan, people generally celebrate this day by writing wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on tanzaku (短冊, tanzaku), small pieces of paper, and hanging them on bamboo, sometimes with other decorations. The bamboo and decorations are often set afloat on a river or burned after the festival, around midnight or on the next day.
It's looking like this'll be my only festival this summer so I asked S and T to come with me to the local one. I left school a bit early and helped Kame with some stuff for her radio show, then I curled my hair, put on my yukata (a summer kimono) and headed out.
The local festival is famous because the Amano River runs through my town. There were plenty of people wearing yukata on the train and when we arrived at the station there were a bunch of train otaku on the platform snapping pics of the Orihime and Hikoboshi trains. We were given tanzaku by a Keihan employee, so the four of us wrote our wishes and hung them on a tree outside Kisaichi Station. Then we got shaved ice (melon for me) from the vendors before starting on the path. A student who's part of the town volunteer group told me that there were 1400 candles in paper lanterns being set up for the festival, but we quickly realized that she probably meant 14,000. Thank goodness it stopped raining in the afternoon, because the paper lanterns would have been ruined. That's how tanabata works, I guess; if Orihime and Hikoboshi don't meet, nobody else gets to have fun either. :P
At the end of the path, once it was pitch dark, we turned back after picking up some okonomiyaki (a set of two, star-shaped! corn & shrimp, and corn & pork) and headed home. Seemed like we weren't out long, but my cell phone alarm went off at 9:10 and I'd left the house at quarter after 6. Madness. Talked awhile on IRC, but I was completely exhausted, and ended up going to bed super early. And today woke up to yet more rain. :O Poor Em's going to the airport today, I hope she'll be all right getting her suitcases there without them getting wet. I may head back at lunchtime to help her carry them.
Unbelievable to think that in a week I will be leaving for L.A./Los. Mitsu is already in California doing his study program. I'm going to be run ragged for these last few days, but will probably true to form be wasting large amounts of time on the Internet and reading books when I ought to be organizing and packing. I'm free for the next few days (aside from having to work every day), but I need to finish scouring my apartment and buying things for the bridal shower (did I mention I'm throwing the shower??), put together the favours, buy my gloves, pick out an actual wedding present, put away the rest of my winter clothes, etc. On Monday I have an este appointment, on Wednesday I have the ESS party and later, karaoke with S and some other teachers, and on Thursday I leave. Uh-oh!
I'll manage somehow. XD Maybe.
It's rainy season here, but we lucked into good weather yesterday, so Orihime and Hikoboshi were able to meet. ;)
Tanabata (七夕, meaning "Evening of the seventh") is a Japanese star festival, derived from the Chinese star festival, Qi Xi (七夕 "The Night of Sevens")．
It celebrates the meeting of Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). The Milky Way, a river made from stars that crosses the sky, separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. Since the stars come out at night, the celebration is held at night.
In present-day Japan, people generally celebrate this day by writing wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on tanzaku (短冊, tanzaku), small pieces of paper, and hanging them on bamboo, sometimes with other decorations. The bamboo and decorations are often set afloat on a river or burned after the festival, around midnight or on the next day.
It's looking like this'll be my only festival this summer so I asked S and T to come with me to the local one. I left school a bit early and helped Kame with some stuff for her radio show, then I curled my hair, put on my yukata (a summer kimono) and headed out.
The local festival is famous because the Amano River runs through my town. There were plenty of people wearing yukata on the train and when we arrived at the station there were a bunch of train otaku on the platform snapping pics of the Orihime and Hikoboshi trains. We were given tanzaku by a Keihan employee, so the four of us wrote our wishes and hung them on a tree outside Kisaichi Station. Then we got shaved ice (melon for me) from the vendors before starting on the path. A student who's part of the town volunteer group told me that there were 1400 candles in paper lanterns being set up for the festival, but we quickly realized that she probably meant 14,000. Thank goodness it stopped raining in the afternoon, because the paper lanterns would have been ruined. That's how tanabata works, I guess; if Orihime and Hikoboshi don't meet, nobody else gets to have fun either. :P
At the end of the path, once it was pitch dark, we turned back after picking up some okonomiyaki (a set of two, star-shaped! corn & shrimp, and corn & pork) and headed home. Seemed like we weren't out long, but my cell phone alarm went off at 9:10 and I'd left the house at quarter after 6. Madness. Talked awhile on IRC, but I was completely exhausted, and ended up going to bed super early. And today woke up to yet more rain. :O Poor Em's going to the airport today, I hope she'll be all right getting her suitcases there without them getting wet. I may head back at lunchtime to help her carry them.
Unbelievable to think that in a week I will be leaving for L.A./Los. Mitsu is already in California doing his study program. I'm going to be run ragged for these last few days, but will probably true to form be wasting large amounts of time on the Internet and reading books when I ought to be organizing and packing. I'm free for the next few days (aside from having to work every day), but I need to finish scouring my apartment and buying things for the bridal shower (did I mention I'm throwing the shower??), put together the favours, buy my gloves, pick out an actual wedding present, put away the rest of my winter clothes, etc. On Monday I have an este appointment, on Wednesday I have the ESS party and later, karaoke with S and some other teachers, and on Thursday I leave. Uh-oh!
I'll manage somehow. XD Maybe.