Week 45: Summer proper!

Well, apparently Summer OFFICIALLY starts at the end of rainy season.  How do you know when rainy season is over?

Well, first of all, it stops raining.

mostly.

And it gets hot.

this is outside the nurses office so the kids know where to put ice to cool off. (the answers are 2,3 and 5)

And, of course, the cicadas come out.

I've heard it asked, what did they think before they figured out it was bugs?  "Oh, yeah, every summer the trees start screaming"?

And before you dismiss that too casually, remember that for years, the scientific world thought that worms came from the sky during the rain.

I'll be honest, the Korean cicadas were much louder.  And if Dani's stories are anything to go by, China's even more so.

Still, if I was to be a ninja, I think I'd prefer it in the summer.  NO problem sneaking up on someone with THAT racket going on.

Let's see, what happened?  Well, I got to see another school practice for their 6th grade singing!

this school has 5 classes of 33 students.

And they actually WENT on Friday, I know this because the principal came up to me and said "6th grade is going to perform!  In city hall!  you can't come."

And then I pouted.

This week was the Tanabata festival!  Otherwise known as the Japanese star festival.

this is Osaka, you can't actually SEE stars...

Anyhow!  So, the story *I* know goes like this.

Goddess of the sky, in charge of...cows?  Pretty sure it's cows.  Falls in love with a mortal. (no idea why)  And wants to marry him.  Head god finds out and is like "nu-UH, you can't marry that, first of all, you're a GODDESS.  SECOND of all, you'd slack. I know you."

And she's very upset at this, of course. "Nu-uuuuuuuh, I'd do all my work! It's not fair, I love him why do you HATE ME?!"

So the head god finally relents "Well, FINE.  But only if you PROMISE to do ALL your work."

And she's very happy and marries him.

And promptly slacks off.

The head god notices this the moment the sacred cows start trampling his garden.  He gets very upset and confronts the goddess. "WHAT did I tell you?!  I said you couldn't handle both!"

so he banishes them to opposite sides of the sky never to see each other again.

EXCEPT on the 7th day of the 7th month, the milky way becomes a bridge for them to cross and meet for one night.  If it's not cloudy.  Which is really iffy, because it IS the tail end of the rainy season.

Most festivals (including this one) lately seem to be during the weekday.  And many during school hours.  So I went to Tanabata on Wednesday night, because I knew there was no rain.

It was fun!  There were lots of people wearing Yukata.

including kids.

prefect timing on that shot.

the dogs too!

And lots of lights.

I didn't steal one.

these were wishes/prayers

they had people standing at each pool with lighters 'cause they went out so often.

temple proper.

so pretty!

long rows of pretty lanterns.

and there were games, of course.

catch the fish

the easier version, catch the bouncy ball

ring toss

And food.  That we waited in line for HALF AN HOUR.

it wasn't even that long of a line, it just didn't MOVE.

The traditional Tatabana decorations are hanging paper and wishes on bamboo shoots.

Better pictures of what they had at schools to celebrate.

we do Christmas trees, this makes perfect sense.

plus it's a writing exercise!

We were going to go back on Friday, when they collect the wishes and set them on fire to get them up to heaven, but it rained.  So we stayed in and made carrot cake.

it was delicious.

this counts as breakfast, right?

I also found a tiny cantaloupe!  For only 100 yen!

which is darn good value considering the cost of fruit around here.

And it was good.

In all a pretty good week!  :D  One more until I get my 3 day weekend!  Woot!

Week 44: Summer

It's so HOT and HUMID.

The plus side of rainy season is that the rain really DOES cut down on the heat.  I mean, sure, it's humid, but it's not as hot.  Now it's hot and humid. :P

Rainy season isn't quite over yet, we had a few rainy days this week.  Monday and Wednesday, I didn't go out to various things because it was raining. (I don't tend to leave after work if it's raining)  However, it is not AS rainy, and the bugs are starting to come out.

well, hello

But it's not bad yet.

Friday it wasn't raining, and I felt like getting out of the house, so I grabbed a friend and we went to see the lanterns on the Dotonburi river in Osaka.

pretty!

I was a little disappointed, I'll admit.  I kinda wanted to see some variety in the lanterns, but it was just these, lining the river.  Still, it was a Friday night, the humanity was filling the area, and it was fun to walk around and see stuff.  This night was apparently sponsored by a Samurai museum that has events, and they were advertising.

Samauri hat.

They had displays and stuff,

cardboard samurai, defense against zombies!

Dotonburi is really just a big social area, nightclubs, shops and restaurants.  So it was fun to look around at everything.

shopping area with lights,

a DJ

A...restaurant?

a...ninja cat..making takoyaki.  Ok.

There were things that were famous, we're not really sure WHY

This is the Glico running man. VERY famous for the area. No idea why.

Famous Takoyaki shop. apparently it's good, but not worth the hour wait.

And there were things we thought were cool,

the lanterns had writing on them. Not sure what they say.

Tanabata is coming! (I'll tell you when I go to a festival)

Hobbit door!

We enjoyed walking around and looking at stuff, but both agreed that we were glad not to live in such a crowded area.  It's fun to visit, but...yeah.

As we were heading home, I told her I was busy Saturday, at a church/culture thing. She sounded interested, so I invited her along.

Me- You're more than welcome to join me.
Her- They're not going to try and convert me are they?
Me- oh, always, but we don't believe in the hard sell. Mostly we just want to be friends.  Plus there's food.
Her- Yay food!

So Saturday we went to a Relief society thing.  I still don't know what it's officially called.   After the meeting, they had some demonstrations

like hula

and some lovely quilting

And then we split up for culture stuff.  We chose "put on a Yukata"

The difference between a Kimono and a Yukata is weather and material.  Yukatas are light cotton, for summer.  Kimonos are heavier, layered, often silk, and fancier.  They actually showed us the proper way to put it on and let us do it as they explained! (Lots of the time, they just explain as THEY do it up)

There are actually 3 belts involved.  One to hike up the bottom of the robe, one under the bust to keep the robe closed (important) and THEN there's a protective thing that's LIKE a belt to keep those from getting untied if your obi starts slipping.  Then the Obi, covering all that stuff up.

tying the obi (main belt)

this is the most involved part

If you're tying your own obi, you usually tie it in front and just slide it around back.

Most Obi are two sided now.

this is the butterfly bow.

this sister took advantage of her two colored obi

my friend and I

There's a petticoat to go under the Yukata, and I gotta say, I wanna get the WHOLE setup.  Very comfy.  And I love the sleeve pockets!

After, we wandered out and checked out what everyone else was doing.

art stuff

Decoupage!

I joined the Decoupage group too. This is soap.

I don't know how well Decopuaged soup will work out. We'll have to see.

And then we ate!

and the husbands and kids joined us!

When we got back, I had to do adult stuff (laundry and cleaning) and it was so HOT and HUMID, I just kinda stayed in the rest of the day.

Today (Sunday) was special because Lika got her baby blessed!

SO CUTE

And it was ANNOYING because my bike ATE one of my favorite SKIRTS

no saving that.

GAH. I mean, I was wearing my bike shorts, so I just tied it up around my waist to get home after, but the damage was done.  ::sigh:: I shall not see it's like again.

Well, that's the week!  Good, bad, boring.  Two weeks until my 3 day weekend.  It's all rather routine, but that's why I like festivals on the weekend.