Tanabata

Today is Tanabata (it means Evening of the Seventh) is a Japanese holiday that's kiiiiiinda like Halloween. Kids go door to door and sing a short song then they get some candy. They don't dress up like goblins or anything like that, though some wear some little cute Japanese style clothes. On this day they also write little wishes/hopes/dreams on a slip of paper and tie it to a bamboo tree.

There's a story that goes along with it, I read it at school today but I kind of forgot what happened. It was basically like, the daughter of a god fell in love with this guy and they loved each other so much that they never worked or did anything. Since they were probably really annoying and obnoxiously in love together, the God separated them. When he saw how depressed they were he like "aaaaaalright, you can get together for ONE NIGHT per year." That night is the 7th of the 7th month... so for that day their wishes are realized. So... now all these kids run around singing a song getting candy and writing wishes and sticking them on trees. Sounds just as crazy as any other western holiday...

At school I wrote my little wish and tied it to a tree. Mine was lame it was just "I hope I get better at writing in Japanese." Because I really suck at that. If you've been reading this blog (which, if you just read that sentence you've been reading this blog) you know my english is pretty bad anyway...I should have wished for better english too. Oh well.

Just to show you how different the two twins, Hikari and Nozomi are, lets indulge in what they wished for... Nozomi wrote「白い家を建てて、白いドレスを着て、お姫様になりますように。」Hikari wrote...「魔女になりますように。」

Nozomi's means "I wish that A big white house will be built, I'll wear a white dress and I'll turn into a princess." Hikari's says "I want to turn into a witch." Polar opposites. Hikari cracks me up, that girl is just pure creative evil. We went to this store that had a little table with paper and crayons so kids could draw. Nozomi drew a very kid-made picture of me that said "American! Mike." on it. It was cute. Hikari drew a picture of a Japanese superhero named "Anpan Man" jumping out of the corner of the paper, it was really colorful and looked EXACTLY like Anpan Man. He was shouting something like "it's me ANPAN MAN!" then if you turned the paper upside down out of the opposite corner some evil alien creature was jumping up screaming something back at Anpan Man along the likes of "You'll never be able to beat ME!!!" It was epic for an 8 year old. She may be evil and disgusting, but she's damn creative, that's for sure.

On a random side note, I was told that Japanese people don't like sharing their towels at home with non-family members. So I brought my towel from home. No big deal right? No, It is. I get shit for it everyday. My host mom is super sarcastic and loves to make fun of me. Japanese towels are tiny, they are aobut the same size as the towels we use as hand towels. No joke. They're tiny. So mine looks MASSIVE to them. Everyone morning I walk down with my towel to take a shower and she says something along the lines of "Why did you bring a sheet with you?" or "Are you going to sleep down here? Why do you have a giant quilt?" or "I bet your suitcase is a lot lighter without that in it!" She thinks its hilarious. What a crazy lady...

Hikari and Nozomi just came home with a mountain of candy lemme go take a picture...

Hikari and the earnings...


My host mom was so proud of them...