Tanabata Memories

Today, July 7th is called Tanabata, the Star Festival, in Japan. It is believed to be the only night of the year that two lovers Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altiar) can meet. For the rest of the year, they are separated by a river made of stars, the Milky Way.

Once again borrowing from Wikipedia, one of the stories goes like this;

"A young farmer named Mikeran discovered on his farm a robe which, unbeknownst to him, belonged to a goddess named Tanabata. Soon after, Tanabata visited Mikeran and asked if he had found it. He lied and told the goddess that he hadn't but would help with her search. Eventually the pair fell in love, were wed and had many children. However, one day Tanabata noticed a piece of cloth which had once belonged to her robe on the roof of Mikeran's hut. His lie discovered, Tanabata agreed to forgive him on the condition that he weave a thousand pairs of straw shoes, but until that time, she would leave him. Mikeran was unable to weave the shoes in his lifetime and thus never met Tanabata again. However, it is said that the pair meet once a year when the stars Altair and Vega intersect."

To celebrate the festival, many Japanese write their wishes on coloured strips of paper and hang them on branches of bamboo. It looks a bit like a summer Christmas tree.

This year, I haven't been to any of the Tanabata festivals, and in fact my town actually celebrates in on August 8th. I find it interesting that the Girl's Festival is on the 3/3, the Boy's on the 5/5, Tanabata on the 7/7 and in my town the 8/8. Does anyone know why?

Many years ago, I went to the Tanabata festival in Ichinomiya City with a couple of friends, a fellow Aussie girl and a Japanese guy. Through the covered streets of the shopping mall, brightly coloured streamers fluttered in the summer breeze. People were dressed in summer yukata kimonos and there were lots of yummy festival food stalls to enjoy. There were also many gangs, rival gangs at that.

These weren't scary yakuza gangs, but rather younger guys, yakuza wanna-be or yakuza in training. Whatever their future may have held, I found them funny and cute. They were all dressed up in their matching uniforms of sorts and just hanging out. I wanted a photo of them and so not even considering there could be anything to fear, just went up to take some photos. My fellow Aussie came and joined me. Our Japanese friend froze in terror. He told us later that he was scared for our safety, but running through his head was "if anything happens, do I try to save the girls, or do I make a run for it?". He never did tell us if he decided which was the best option.

The gang leader however, was more than happy to pose with us and I have a great shot of his friendly grin and "peace" sign.

The police however, did not find the gangs so cute. There were many of them there on the night, decked out in full riot gear. If I was on the streets of Melbourne or LA, I would have been terrified. But instead, I found the short, slim policemen kinda cute, a bit like little boys pretending to be big scary men. The police decided it was time to move the gangs on, but the gangs didn't want to move. In their bullet proof vests, face shields down and batons striking on shields they held in front of their chests, they formed a strong line and slowly moved forward.

Again, much to our Japanese friend's distress, my Aussie friend and I thought it was a perfect photo opportunity. Somewhere (sadly I think it's back in Australia) I have this fabulous shot of her doing a very happy, cutesy pose in front of the line of riot police and one officer screaming in her ear "Abunai!" (it's dangerous).

I know I should remember the stories and traditions of Tanabata, but for me, it will forever be the image of my friend's cheeky grin in the face of "danger".

Burn Daruma Baby Burn

Last weekend was a really busy one for me. Saturday was devoted to sorting kimono fabric for some customers. Sunday I went to watch Wayne in his Iaido grading and I'm proud to say that he got his Sho-dan (first degree black belt). The hall he was grading in was also holding a Coming of Age ceremony. I got so focused on the photos I was taking of all the gorgeous kimonos (sorry about the pun), that I almost missed Wayne's moment of grading (bad wife Melanie, bad wife). After taking Wayne out for a congratulatory dinner, the evening was spent downloading and retouching photos.

But still, I was up for more! On Sunday I headed to Atsuta Shrine to take more Seijin no Hi pics before I rushed over to another festival at Osu Kannon.

This Sagicho festival is held at shrines around the country, on the same day as Seijin no Hi. It's a Shinto rite where the New Year decorations are burnt while priest pray for the health of all. The one at Osu Kannon in Nagoya was tame compared to some others in Japan, but I always enjoy a good fire, especially nice on these cold winter days.

Some of the decorations are set with a Daruma wish doll on top (notice that both eyes have been painted, so this is a used doll). The High Priest begins the chants.

Close up of the chants

Burn baby burn! Another priest sets the whole thing alight.



An ordained pyromaniac


Adding fuel to the fire. Priest throw different wooden prayer/wish tablets on the fire.



Hopes go up in smoke. A friend explained to me that they are prayers are said while they are burnt so that the smoke will take the wishes to the gods.

My lucky mochi. At the end of it all, I was presented with a piece of mochi, a hard rice cake. My mochi says "Good luck". I'm told I can eat it, though I think I'll just keep this one. There is plenty of non-lucky (as opposed to unlucky) mochi in my kitchen.

Another lucky thing of the day was that by pure chance, I met Kikuko. She has a great website with lots of useful and interesting information about Japan, but more importantly, it has a detailed Monthly calendar for events happening around in and around Nagoya. For the last couple of years, her website has been my are-there-any-festivals-on-this-weekend bible. I found this festival in there. You can see her website here.

A bit of a bump in the road

I can quite rightly say that I feel like I've been hit by a truck. It was a small truck at least.

Wayne and I had a full weekend planned this past weekend, though it didn't go quite as expected. Strangely enough, this time last year, we had the same weekend planned, but didn't make it to any of the festivals as Wayne was diagnosed as being "diseased in the head" and was admitted (or should I say commited) to hospital. I'm thinking of boycotting the same weekend next year.....

We started off the weekend well, did a bit of work, ran a few errands and had a really yummy pasta and pizza lunch. We then headed off to Mino city, in Gifu Prefecture that is famous for its paper. There, I stocked up on yuzen washi. The lovely town with preserved old wooden buildings was in full swing preparing for its annual lantern festival that we planned to go to that night.

We then started making our way to Seki, to meet our friend Natsuki and check out the Seki Hamono Festival, or rather the Seki Cutlery Festival. Sounds exciting doesn't it! It would be more accurate to call it the Seki Things-You-Can-Cut-Stuff-With Festival, as it is mainly swords and knives, hense Wayne was very eager to go. Sitting in the car at a red light, Wayne and I were reflecting on how nice it was to actually get out of the house for once and that we should do it more often, when BANG our car was thrown forward and bodies thrust about like car crash dummies.

When my brain stopped rattling, I looked behind us at the small truck that had run into us, and just as I was thinking that I needed to pull into the side street, there was a police man in the windscreen gesturing for us to do so as soon as the light turned green. They had seen it all happen.

The little old man that had hit us was shaking and confused. I didn't want to say anything to him as a friend of mine had dug herself into a hole in a similar accident a few years ago. She had gotten very angry at the man who had hit her new car and then later apoligised for yelling at him. He tried to use that apology as evidence that the accident had been her fault.

The two young policemen were friendly and helpful. It's funny what goes through your head at the time, I was thinking "I'm glad they saw what happened, I'm really glad I have a Japanese drivers licence and I really hope they don't tell me off for not having my learner driver sticker on the car like my Japanese licence says I should even though I've been driving for 14 years, three of those in Japan."

After a quick call and a chat to one of the policemen, Natsuki came to our aid. Communicating with the old man was difficult and we needed his details for the insurance company. Natsuki struggled with him for about half an hour until we finally got his name, address and phone number.

Luckily, there was very little damage to the car or to us. The hatchback now can't be opened so that will require repairing. If we had the same accident in Australia, it would be considered to be 100% the other guys fault. Not so in Japan. We are considered 5% liable, simply for being there.

We still made it for a quick look at the blades at the Seki festival, but still feeling shaken (quite litterally) and rather achey, we decided to skip the Mino Lantern Festival. The next morning we rose early, donned our festival happi coats and spent a day participating in a local village harvest festival. Rain hampered our festival plans for Monday, but to be honest, by then we were ready for a rest and a bit of quiet.