The Anjo Tanabata Festival

The Anjo Tanabata Festival is a popular annual star festival. There's a story about two stars who were causing a ruckus or some such nonsense together and they were finally separated by the milkyway. One time during the year they are allowed to meet and be with eachother. This star festival celebrates this time.

Elspeth came from Akaike to join Mateo and I for the festival. We started Sunday with a trip to Sakae. We grabbed some lunch and then headed to the bookstore. We discovered that there was a book sale that included a ton of English books so we browsed and purchased. I ended up picking up Pride and Prejudice (I need my Mr. Darcy, even in Japan) and A Million Little Pieces (another fav book and it has a really cool cover) for less than books cost in Canada! We then popped into the 100yen store to pick up some things, the best of which was this;

[Look at this tiny stool - it's designed for firework/camping/festival season and it cost a whopping 157 yen = $1.60 CAN)]

We dropped our loot off at my apartment and then headed to Anjo for the festival. Anjo is located just a couple stops past Obu. When we got there it was already dark and the lanterns were all glowing. The streets were packed and it was amazing. We watched some Taiko (Japanese drumming), and then walked down the never ending streets of food stalls, games, toys, etc. Elspeth and I each bought a handmade bamboo pinwheel decorated with origami paper. It twirled in the wind and made us extremely happy.





[It's me Mario! Look closely!]

[People were selling these HUGE stag beetle things as kid's pets! We saw this teeny-tiny girl pick out two beetles for herself...eeek!)








The highlight of the night was seeing the taiko performance. The sound doesn't translate to video. It was amazing!