Tanabata! The Star Festival

1852 Hiroshige woodblock print of Tanabata in Old Edo

7/7...July seventh is Tanabata (七夕）, the Star Festival, the most romantic festival of the year.

I just love the story behind this one:-))  It goes like this:

"Orihime (織姫 Weaving Princess^?), daughter of the Tentei (天帝 Sky King, or the universe itself^?), wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa (天の川 Milky Way, lit. "heavenly river"^?). Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. However, Orihime was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tentei arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi (彦星 Cow Herder Star^?) (also referred to as Kengyuu (牽牛^?)) who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa. When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and married shortly thereafter. However, once married, Orihime no longer would weave cloth for Tentei and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tentei separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tentei was moved by his daughter’s tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if she worked hard and finished her weaving. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. It is said that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies cannot come and the two lovers must wait until another year to meet."

Of course, there are other versions of the story, but this is the main one (i.e.-- the one I know:-)).  And, you know, it rains nearly every year on Tanabata. :-(  Poor Orihime.  Poor Hikoboshi.  In the sky, they are Vega and Altair--forever separated by the Ama no Gawa (Heaven's River, the Milky Way), meeting only briefly on July seventh...  This is what happens when you have a Star Festival in the middle of the Rainy Season.  I just checked outside-- cloudy, with a chance of rain.  I wonder whether the Magpies will come if it's just cloudy but not  raining?

Watch this for a minute-- it fills in!

Vega, the Weaver Star (Orihime in the story-- "Ori" means "to weave" and it's part of my daughter's name "Iori"), the brightest star of the Lyre constellation and forming the top of the Summer Triangle...

Altair, the brightest star of Aquila the Eagle at the bottom of the Triangle, is Hikoboshi, her lover.

Deneb, the brightest star of Cygnus, isn't part of the story, but it does form the rest of the Summer Triangle off to the left (as you're looking at the chart over there-- the three stars of the triangle are easily visible at the start, and get a harder to find as stars fill in).

The traditions associated with Tanabata have come partly from Obon traditions (another summer festival)-- things got a little mixed up when they switched from the Japanese lunar calendar to the Gregorian calendar.

The first thing to do, is go cut some Sasa (笹, bamboo-- the kind pandas like to eat:-) and tie it up or put it into a vase if it's short enough.

Then you decorate with colorful paper chains, kirigami stars (video below), kirigami Ama no Gawa (fold a piece of origami paper in half and in half again lengthwise... make horizontal cuts left, then right, then left, all the way down the paper, being careful not to cut all the way across... unfold and pull down to make the Milky Way!).

Then you write a wish on a colorful strip of paper and tie that onto the branches-- Tanabata!

 The rectangular strips are the Tanzaku (短冊), sometimes written as poetry, more often a wish to pass an exam or improve in a skill (traditionally in sewing and craftsmanship skills for girls, in handwriting for boys).

Click that photo there, and you can see the "Ama no Gawa" better (it's done in silver origami paper--very easy to make:-).


Here's the Kirigami Star again-- it's pretty if you use foil paper or sparkly or hologram paper.

Even the grocery store had signs up for Tanabata (you can see the little drawing of bamboo with wish papers on it bottom left)... the big kanji on the right    "七夕 " say "Tanabata" (the kanji read as "seven--evening, but the meaning of the word Tanabata is rather more confusing).

tomatoes for 77yen apiece...

It took me a while to figure out why lots of things were on sale for 77yen, or 177yen, or 277yen...

July 7th... 7/7... Star Festival... 77yen.  Duh.  I was slow on the uptake today;-))

Happy Tanabata! :-))

Mata asobou, ne!

Never In All My Days...

...have I seen hydrangeas so beautifully, naturally blue.  Hydrangea macrophylla.

I took a walk the other day--but not around here.  I went someplace special because the hydrangeas were in full bloom, and if it's ajisai you want to see...

 

...off to Kamakura you go!  There are hydrangea bushes spilling over every wall, adorning every corner right now.  But one temple in Kamakura is so famous for its ajisai that people know it as well by its nickname-- "Ajisaidera" (Hydrangea Temple)--as by the real name.

Meigetsuin Road

"Mei" means "bright", "Getsu" means "moon", and "in" is "hermitage", also translated as "temple".  It is well over seven hundred years old, and the temple with which it was originally a part over eight hundred years old.

Ja... ikou, yo!

Every alley and cross street is lined with pink, blue, and purple.

Get off at Kita-Kamakura station and hang a right.  There are actually  any number of ancient, lovely temples that date back to the Kamakura period of Japanese history (the shogunate established in 1185 in Kamakura that wrested control away from the emperor for about a century and a half).  But on this particular day I (along with all the other Aunties of a Certain Age) had come to see Hydrangeas, so there was really only one temple to see.

The Ajisai-dera is only 500 meters from the station, so I walked instead of hiring a Jinrikisha (人力車... literally "person-power-vehicle").   It tends to be pricey, which is the other reason I didn't hire one.  Back in the day when I was single and traveling around Kyoto, I did shell out $50 for a ride-- and Ladies, allow me to assure you that fifty bucks is not an unreasonable fee to be pulled around town by a young, lithe, good-looking Japanese guy who runs all day for a living.  They wear tight pants.  The view is worth every bit of that 5000yen...;-))

Gradations of pink to purple on a single bush...

Ahem.

What was I talking about?  Oh.   Flowers.  Right.
It's a good thing I was by myself, as I took a picture of nearly every flower I saw:-))  Actually, all these photos are for my Mommy, who would (like me) stop to look at every. single. flower.  I come by it honest;-))  Happy Birthday, Mom!

Lovely blue Lacecap Hydrangeas (Gaku-ajisai)... and crowds.

In spite of it's having been a weekday, the whole area was quite crowded.  I figured it was the nice weather-- we had two beautiful, sunny days in between a week of clouds and rain.  Which meant that I, along with everybody else, thought it would be a good day to go.  It always seems to be that way here-- no matter what you think of to do, when you get to wherever you were going, you find out that ten thousand other people had the exact same idea...

Blue Lacecap, tending to purplish...

I didn't really mind, though-- I was mostly glad for the break in the weather.  And, as a matter of fact, all the rain in previous weeks meant that the ajisai were gloriously happy about being so well-watered and were busting out everywhere.  The last time I visited this temple, the flowers were rather pale blue-- lovely, but not the intense color I'd remembered from my first time seeing them.

My favorite color...because it occurs naturally:-)

 This year, though, the ajisai were almost pulsatingly blue-- True Hydrangea Blue, not the too-bright royal blue you sometimes see in hothouse hybrids.

Ajisai and Bamboo

The really fascinating thing (to me, anyway) about this species of hydrangea (H. macrophylla), is the way the pH of the soil affects the color of the flowers.  Really!

A bush may be initially pink or blue, but depending on the acidity or alkalinity of the soil and the uptake of aluminum ions from the soil, very often you will see bushes with no two mopheads of flowers the same color.   Here's the relevant bit from Wiki:

"In most species the flowers are white, but in some species (notably H. macrophylla), can be blue, red, pink, light purple, or dark purple. In these species the exact colour often mirrors the pH of the soil; acidic soils produce blue flowers, neutral soils produce very pale cream petals, and alkaline soils results in pink or purple. This is caused by a color change of the flower pigments in the presence of aluminium ions which can be taken up into hyperaccumulating plants.^[2][3]"

Don't they give the distinct impression of arteries and veins?

 ^{Are you not diverted?  If you look closely at the stems, you can see how they gradually change color from the main stem to the tiny, branching stems supporting the individual flowers.   The main stem is green (as usual), but changes to pink, to purplish, to blue just beneath the flowers.  I wondered whether this wasn't maybe due to the uptake of aluminum ions as mentioned in the Wiki article....}

Pink to Purple... maybe the soil is slightly acidic her

^{I noticed on the way up the street that the ajisai outside the temple were mostly of the pink variety, which had nearly all morphed to some shade of purple, while all the bushes inside the temple proper were blue (intensely blue this year).}  

Not retouched in any way-- this is the actual color I was looking at...

^{Generally acidic soil, perhaps, causing the basically pink plants to shade to purple, while enhancing the blue of the blue plants?}

Ajisai behind the Tea House

 ^{This is getting a bit long, so...}

The Tea House

^{... I'll leave you with a few more images of Hydrangeas at the Ajisai-dera, and continue this post on the weekend with the Other Stuff At The Temple Besides Hydrangeas...}

Kamakura Ishi no Sandou

^{The money shot:  at right, the 800-year-old path of original, weathered Kamakura Stones (鎌倉石の参道... Kamakura Ishi no Sandou).  Of course, ideally, you'd want this shot with just the stone steps flanked by gracefully drooping ajisai and no people, but....}

Ajisai and Jinrikisha...

 Hydrangeas, crowds, and Jinrikisha...




...all the bushes looked like this...

Blue ajisai with a touch of purple...

A Trip To The Doctor's, or, Why Mamas Don't Post Everyday...

Kokuwagatamushi (Small Stag Beetle)...

Sometimes kids wake up with the *weirdest* afflictions.


Koshi woke up Friday morning... and laid in bed.  I nagged him to get up and get dressed.  He continued to loll.  I nagged.  He lolled.  He finally made an effort to put his clothes on--while moaning that his leg hurt.  I assumed he'd just slept on it funny, and it would be fine if he just got up and got moving.

Nope.  Crimping and hopping down the hall, then back to bed.  Koshi is my Drama Kid (when he was a baby and a toddler, he had two levels of crying:  "Call 911" and "Asleep".  Nothing in between-- so I feel my initial skepticism was justified;-)).  I checked the calendar to see whether there was anything going on at school that he didn't want to do.  Nope.  I finally told him he could stay home for an hour and go later to school, thinking that surely his leg would miraculously feel better if he got to stay in bed a little longer.

I walked the other kids up to school, and found a cute little Stag Beetle on the pavement on the way home.  I picked her up and put her in the camera bag, sure that an adorable Beetle represented an Instant Cure for Mysteriously Gimpy Legs.

Consultation and an xray for twenty bucks

No such luck.  So, around eleven o'clock,  we got on our bicycles and went to the hospital (I figured he'd need to be seen by the Seikeigeka--the orthopedic surgeon--and would probably need an xray, so the pediatric clinic was out).  We waited about half an hour before seeing the doctor (no appointments are necessary at hospitals or clinics--usually only the dentist requires an appointment).

He did need an xray, and so I learned more new words-- pelvic bone (choukotsu) and femur (daitaikotsu), joint inflammation (kansetsuenshou).  *Sigh*.  The things I learn at the hospital...  Some water in the joint, apparently--though for no readily apparent reason (*possibly* a cold virus or bacteria that had made its way to the joint).  The cure?  Rest.  No running.  No jumping.  No playing.  No exercise.  No baseball.  No walking.  At all.  For three days.

The follow-up visit... get a real health care system, America

I spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday alternately entertaining and attempting to sit on my most energetic child.  By Saturday, most of the pain in his hip joint was gone... and he wanted to play.

No, honey--no playing.  Rest.

"Tsumannai!"  (bored)  "I can't help that, sweetie.  The doctor said to rest, or your leg will keep hurting and you won't get to play baseball all summer.  And the growth plate on top of the leg bone could get damaged.  No growth plate=short leg forever."  That worked for about ten minutes.

Monday I had to keep him home again, because he still had some pain if I moved his leg outward.  So it was back to the doctor for a follow-up visit (which was very inexpensive, as you can see above-- 360yen, or about $3.60.  That's right.  Three dollars and sixty cents.  I simply do not understand the current "debate" in the United States over health care.  We can provide eighteen years of public schooling for children, but not health care?  And can anyone explain how my paying $3.60 for a follow-up visit represents a loss of medical freedom or a "nanny state"?  Surely it is Americans facing bankruptcy due to crippling medical debts who are experiencing a loss of "freedom"?  I just don't get it...sorry.  Rant done;-))

We love our Very Small Beetle:-))

Koshi did get to go back to school today (thank goodness--I'm not sure I could have taken another day of enforced rest for a kid who is not sick), but the Re-injury Warning is still in effect.  No exercise, no gym class, no pool, no baseball, no playing outside during recess, no running in the halls.  Walking only.  I had to call his teacher this morning and apprise her of all this-- so now she can have *her* hands full:-))  Only one more week, then we're off the hook as long as there's no pain.  One more week.

Mata asobou, ne!

School Days-- A Day in the Fifth Grade

O-Soji... The Honorable Cleaning;-)

Once a year the kids have school on Saturday-- an "open house" day when moms and dads can drop in any time during the day to watch their kids' classes.  Fortunately everybody recovered from colds that have plagued us all week (all three of my boys home for the last three days-- Koshi, Teddy, and Papa--in case anybody was wondering where I went;-), so Yokohamapapa and I were able to go watch classes all day.

 
I always especially like watching the kids during Cleaning Time after lunch and recess (in that order)--it's so different from my experience in school, both as a student and as a teacher.  In Japan, there is no cafeteria--students eat their lunches in the classrooms, waiting for everyone to be served before they put their hands together and say "Itadakima--su!" (I humbly partake).  The students do the serving and, after recess, the cleaning up, too.  One of those things that educators would term an "invisible part of the curriculum".

Kids with rags wait for the Sweepers to get done...

Such a small thing, but one that teaches so much--responsibility, care for one's environment, teamwork to get a job done...

Rooms and halls are swept and cleaned with damp rags (there are sinks out in the hallways for this and for brushing teeth after lunch--another good idea) every day.  At the beginning of the year, the sixth graders go down to the first grade classrooms to teach the new first graders what to do (and make sure things actually get clean;-).  There are several jobs, and the children do them all on a rotating basis.

Buckets of water, all up and down the hallway, which manage not to get kicked over...

The Science room

Koshi wanted us to watch his science class today--interesting because I'd never seen the science room.  Do American elementary schools have science rooms?  I know mine didn't-- I never saw a science room like this until I was in Junior High.  Seventh grade, to be exact.

 This is an actual science classroom, mind-- complete with microscopes, scales, test tubes, voltmeters, and petri dishes.  Science is started right off in first grade (though it isn't called that until third grade)-- and by fourth grade they listen, take notes, do experiments, and take tests from their notes.  Things I know for a fact I wasn't exposed to until seventh grade.

Scales and weights (metric, of course)

Test tubes... petri dishes are on a lower shelf.

All I could do was shake my head and think that if American parents and school boards and educational policy makers could see inside an elementary school here-- the mysterious Asian "advantage" in science would immediately cease to be a mystery.

They start earlier.  Plain and simple.

The experimental results...

Today they were continuing their study of seeds and the conditions necessary for seeds to sprout and grow-- an appropriate activity for kids who have been growing plants from seed every year since first grade (another day I'll put up what Cici's growing).  Now that they're a little older, they can study those cute little seeds in more depth.

Seeds without air (left)... and with air exposure (right)

The window sill in the classroom was crowded with plastic cups--all labeled, some with sprouted seeds, some not sprouted.  The conditions (air, temperature, water) were labeled on the cups and collated on the poster charts on the wall with the results noted.

Aha!  That's what it needs!

Some plants were growing nicely:-))

Back in May, the fifth graders planted rice in a paddy across the street.  They go over from time to time to take care of the rice, weed the paddy (their section of it, anyway), and watch its progress.

Some things just can't be taught via worksheet-- and where your food comes from is one of those things.

rice seedlings...

Plant the seedlings just... so.

They got help from a local farmer who owns the field-- community involvement!  The kids not only plant and cultivate the rice, they also go over from time to time to draw pictures of it and write about the process of cultivation and the growth of the plants.  I *love* the layered approach they take to teaching--  this is science, health, writing, and art all rolled into one memorable experience.

...the fifth graders' section.

Awww...... planted a bit-- willy-nilly, shall we say?  It was loads of fun, though, according to Koshi.

... somehow the farmer's section is *much* straighter;-))

As Papa and I stood surveying the rice paddy during recess, Yokohamapapa decided to rest his arm on a bamboo post marking the corner of the paddy.

He gave a sudden shout...

Amagaeru-- Japanese Tree Frog (Hyla japonica)

...and lo and behold, he'd nearly leaned his arm on the cutest little green frog you've ever seen!

Well-- I knew just what to do.  Camera out of the camera bag and into my purse...catch little frog... put frog into camera bag.  I have a ten-year-old who would just love him:-))

 "Are you sure that's ok?"  Yokohamapapa wanted to know.

I assured him it would be fine, since Koshi's project group ("Ikimonogakari"--the Living Things Group) was already taking care of a turtle...

...a crawdad (one of those big American Zarigani, from the looks of him)... or two or three...

.... ants to watch them build tunnels and nests...

...and a newt, which Koshi bought at a pet store with his own money earned by washing the windows for me...

I figured-- what could it hurt to add a frog?

Sensei didn't mind at all... and Koshi's face was like Christmas:-))