Yesterday I went with two American guys and a Japanese girl to the Sendai Tanabata Festival. Sendai has the most famous Tanabata festival in the country. Last night was only fireworks (hanabi- which means "fire flower"). I say ONLY fireworks like it was no big deal, but the thing is... when the Japanese do fireworks, the DO FIREWORKS! They had about 15,000 fireworks last night and it lasted hours, and they were GOOD! I noticed right in the middle of watching it that their slow-time fireworks were like our finales in the US. Crazy.
Evidently there are many reasons for this festival and many explanations of what it represents. There is one that I find most interesting, though I have no idea if it is most accurate. By the way, the actual festival itself is supposed to be in the 7th day of the 7th month each year, so the festival is still going on for the next few nights in Sendai.
Anyway, the story I like is this... There was once a girl who used to make cloth on the riverbank. Her father loved the cloth and so she kept working hard everyday to make more and more of it. However, she became sad because with all this time spent working on the cloth, she never had the time to meet her true love.
Seeing that she was upset, her father allowed her some extra time and quickly she met a man who raised cows on the other side of the river. They fell in love and got married. Soon, though, the husband stopped taking care of the cows and they wandered all over heaven. The girl lost interest in making the fine cloth. The father became angry. He banished them from seeing each other.
Eventually seeing that this made the girl very upset, the father took mercy on her and allowed the two to meet once a year on the 7th day of the 7th month. However, when the two first tried to meet up, they discovered there was no bridge, so a bunch of magpies created one for them, and they make a new one for them every year.
The river in this story is supposed to be the milky way, and the man and woman are two stars that are only on the same side of it once a year.
On a different note, yesterday one of the Japanese Teachers of English at my school informed me that today is the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. I feel a little awkward today, but I think that she must be the only person in my prefecture who even realizes it. The only reason that she even brought it up was because I was helping a student who was working on a speech for a recitation contest and it related to the bombing... actually she was less informing me about it than the student.
I don't know what I was expecting today... maybe the stink-eye for the whole day and then everyone wake up the next day and forget, or maybe hold a grudge because they realized that they had forgotten to hate Americans or something... In any case, they were just wild day-dreams that things would go awfully awry. People still like me, or at least seem to. It probably helps that I brought a bunch of American candy today- Starburst, Jolly Ranchers, and Red and Black Twizzlers. I heard that the Japanese hate licorice... I brought it as payback for nato, a nasty bean paste for those who are unaware. Anyway, they were all like, WOW, and I could see them wanting to spit it out... but I was able to take advantage of the Japanese sense of manners. They ate not just the first bite, but the whole piece that they had taken.
Oh, and while they liked the Jolly Ranchers and Starburst and gave a nice relief from the taste of licorice... they were practically crying from how sour they were. The Japanese have a hard time with spicy and sour things.
This is fun.
Evidently there are many reasons for this festival and many explanations of what it represents. There is one that I find most interesting, though I have no idea if it is most accurate. By the way, the actual festival itself is supposed to be in the 7th day of the 7th month each year, so the festival is still going on for the next few nights in Sendai.
Anyway, the story I like is this... There was once a girl who used to make cloth on the riverbank. Her father loved the cloth and so she kept working hard everyday to make more and more of it. However, she became sad because with all this time spent working on the cloth, she never had the time to meet her true love.
Seeing that she was upset, her father allowed her some extra time and quickly she met a man who raised cows on the other side of the river. They fell in love and got married. Soon, though, the husband stopped taking care of the cows and they wandered all over heaven. The girl lost interest in making the fine cloth. The father became angry. He banished them from seeing each other.
Eventually seeing that this made the girl very upset, the father took mercy on her and allowed the two to meet once a year on the 7th day of the 7th month. However, when the two first tried to meet up, they discovered there was no bridge, so a bunch of magpies created one for them, and they make a new one for them every year.
The river in this story is supposed to be the milky way, and the man and woman are two stars that are only on the same side of it once a year.
On a different note, yesterday one of the Japanese Teachers of English at my school informed me that today is the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. I feel a little awkward today, but I think that she must be the only person in my prefecture who even realizes it. The only reason that she even brought it up was because I was helping a student who was working on a speech for a recitation contest and it related to the bombing... actually she was less informing me about it than the student.
I don't know what I was expecting today... maybe the stink-eye for the whole day and then everyone wake up the next day and forget, or maybe hold a grudge because they realized that they had forgotten to hate Americans or something... In any case, they were just wild day-dreams that things would go awfully awry. People still like me, or at least seem to. It probably helps that I brought a bunch of American candy today- Starburst, Jolly Ranchers, and Red and Black Twizzlers. I heard that the Japanese hate licorice... I brought it as payback for nato, a nasty bean paste for those who are unaware. Anyway, they were all like, WOW, and I could see them wanting to spit it out... but I was able to take advantage of the Japanese sense of manners. They ate not just the first bite, but the whole piece that they had taken.
Oh, and while they liked the Jolly Ranchers and Starburst and gave a nice relief from the taste of licorice... they were practically crying from how sour they were. The Japanese have a hard time with spicy and sour things.
This is fun.
9:47 PM |
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Comments (3)
I can't wait!
Aww... now I'm craving Starburst and Jolly Ranchers. Loving the stories, keep up the good work! :-D
-Krystal
You realize that they'll give you dried squid to eat someday, right? It doesn't go down as quickly as a Starburst:) I'd like to hear more about your work with students. It sounds like a good start to an exciting year.
-Barbie (cousin)