What do you wish upon a star? (July 1st)

We’ve been puzzled over the weird weather since this spring. By the first days of April, cherry blossoms had already gone.  And now, rainy season had ended by the end of  June.  Both happened about two weeks earlier than usual, so surprised!

Anyways, we were grateful that 19 guests from US, Australia, Singapore, Israel, Italy and Spain joined our tour last weekend. It was their first visit to Japan for most of them. I hope they had enjoyed our tour through the Meiji Shrine and Harajuku area.

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At the front of the main pavilion, one of the guests found a bamboo with decoration of colored papers and asked what they are for.

We have ‘Tanabata (七夕)’, a festival of the Weaver Star on July 7th.  It is based on an old Chinese legend, in which the two star lovers separated by the Milky Way meet once a year on this day. People write their wishes on narrow paper tablets and hang them on bamboo leaves with other decorations, extending their prayers to the stars.  These tablets are written by many kids, one of then was written, “I wanna be a animal doctor!”, or the other was “I wanna get more Pokemon!”, so cute!

What do you wish upon the star on July 7th?  Me? Of course, it’s secret!

(Hisako)