Tanabata

Yesterday was Tanabata. Tanabata is a Japanese star festival... okay, actually they borrowed it from the Chinese several thousand years ago. The story behind the festival goes something like this (and varies slightly depending on who you ask): The star Altair is a herdsman prince. Vega is a weaver princess. The two fell in love, but they spent so much time together they weren't getting their work done. (No, really, this is what someone told me.) So the star king separated them, putting each on opposite sides of the milky way. Once a year, they get to meet up again, and that day is July 7th. Unfortunately, they only get to meet if the sky is clear that night. I guess the star king is pretty severe about his punishments for not doing your job.
Anyway, every year, Japanese people decorate for this festival by making origami and writing wishes on colorful pieces of paper. They tie all this beautiful paper work to branches of bamboo, which hang at the front of the house, just outside the door, and also all over the arcade here. Traditionally, the wishes relate to work or weaving, but apparently you can choose to wish for anything. If the sky is clear on tanabata, your wish comes true. The problem is, it's the rainy season. The sky hasn't been clear since early June, and it wasn't last night either, so I guess the odds are not in anyone's favor with these wishes. No one seems to mind, though.
To celebrate, or rather just to get out of the house, Zack and I went to a cultural festival at Nagasaki Junior College. Naturally, we forgot our camera. I got to introduce Zack to the teachers there and a few friends who showed up for the fun of it, and the festival was a lot of fun. The students ran it. They come from Japan, Korea and China, and many were dressed in traditional clothes, so just looking around was fun.
The event was started off with the sharing of a traditional Japanese noodle dish for summer. Basically, each of us was given a bowl, which we filled with soy sauce, ginger, wasabi and onions as we saw fit and chopsticks. Then, we were directed to a makeshift pipe made out of bamboo sliced vertically. Water was rushing down this pipe, and the students would occasionally add thin, white noodles. As the noodles passed by, it was our job to scoop them up with our chopsticks. Keep in mind the noodles are thin and slippery and the water is going fast. It was a lot of work, but much fun.
After that, two Mexican exchange students performed a traditional Mexican dance (How cool is it that two 16 year olds from Mexico are hanging out at a Junior College in Japan?), followed by a traditional Chinese dance, and some Korean singing. There was a martial arts demo, and then we were all left to our own devices to participate in various activities around the room.
Zack and I produced a flower arrangement in the traditional Japanese style, called Ikebana. We required a lot of help from the girl running this stand. It's a very exact art. There was also a caligraphy table and a place to make your wishes for Tanabata. Several students took turns performing the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, so I even got a glass of matcha before we took off. All in all, it was a good time.
Zack spent the afternoon busily typing away his blog entry for his recent trip. It's almost done, he swears, then we'll post it here, but today he's on duty, so it will be a few more days before he can finish it. But rest assured, details are soon to follow...