Hi <<First Name>>,

Tomorrow is Tanabata (七夕｜たなばた), the night when the the two star-crossed lovers Orihime (織姫｜おりひめ) and Hikoboshi (彦星｜ひこぼし) are said to cross the river of heaven to be with each other. The story goes, Orihime was hard at work weaving cloth for her father Tentei (天帝｜てんてい) the sky king, when she grew lonely and sad. Meeting boys was hard for her because she worked so hard day and night. Her father concerned for her upon seeing this, decided to arrange a meeting for Orihime and Hikoboshi the cow herder, who lived on the other side of the river.

Boys being boys, and girls being girls, they fell in love and soon married. Orihime's loom fell silent and Hikoboshi's cows roamed all over heaven. Tentei grew angry seeing this and forbade the pair to meet, seperating them again on either side of the heavenly river. Orihime grew despondent and her tears flowed until her father relented, permitting them to meet just once a year on the 7th day of the 7th month.

In keeping with tradition, Japanese boys and girls write wishes on small pieces of paper (短冊｜たんざく) to hang from bamboo grass (笹｜ささ ) in July. The celebration is closely linked to Obon, and in some places occurs　closer to the true lunar date　in August. 

The Matsusaka tanabata festival is noted in the Japanese Wikipedia as one the main tanabata festivals in Japan. It occurs at night on the river bank, where backlit stage is set for a performance of traditional song and dance. Unfortunately I won't be there to see it, but every where I go I can see preparations for it. Visit the blog of the festival organisers in Matsusaka where you can some of their preparations.

I recently went with my family down to Okage Yokocho, a little village near the Grand Shrine Naiku in Ise. I took a few photos which are up in this set on Flickr. I'll be featuring some of them on the blog very soon. I've also had some fun selling a few items on Flutterscape, you're not too late to pick something up if you hurry. I'll be in Japan until next Monday.

I've had quite few emails from people asking me about some Japanese language fundamentals. I'm looking forward to answering them in more detail on the blog, by getting back to basics with a series on the Japanese language. In the meantime please enjoy this shout out, cheers! from Japan.

Brett Fyfield

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