With Tokyo Sky Tree

It’s that time of the year when there seems to be a reason for a festival pretty much every week.

Thursday 7 July marked Tanabata, otherwise known as the Star Festival. This is one of the festivals the Japanese adapted from the Chinese during the Edo Period (1603-1868).

Like quite  a few Chinese / Japanese festivals, there’s a legend behind it and it’s a little sad. There are two deities, represented by stars, who are lovers. She wove cloth and he was a cow herder. Consequently, there was no cloth and the cows were running amok. Well, as amok as cows can possibly run. Lucky they weren’t goats.

They Sky King (who incidentally was her father; he really like the cloth she produced) then separated them by the Milky Way as punishment for neglecting their duties.  Now they can only meet once per year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month as granted by the Sky King.

Festivities tend to begin on this day though people celebrate it throughout Japan (based on location) until sometime in August.

The festival sees people writing wishes on coloured strips of paper, then tying them to bamboo which can contain other decorations too. In the Olden Days, girls wrote of being able to weave well and boys wrote of having good handwriting. Some even did it as poetry. I can’t read it yet to tell if some are still doing it this way. Maybe by next year…

Today I went to the Shitamachi Tanabata which ran from the Asakusa Shrine all the way down to the end of Kappabashi Dori. You may remember that as Kitchen Town. It’s quite a long walk decorated with streamers and banners. Does explain why the festival runs from 6th to 11th July; that’s enough time to dawdle all the way to the end and to make repeat visits for things that may have been missed the first time.

I imagine that it doesn’t impress too many drivers though as the street is blocked on Saturday and Sunday. I’m not sure about the other days. Did I mention that it’s quite a long street? So long that when arriving at the end of a block, police are blocking the cross-traffic for when the lights change so people will cross the road quickly. I stopped numerous times and they are big blocks in this area.

I meandered and made to the end in the day, stopping along the way to watch the street performers, some musicians and to see some of the goods that were for sale. From traditional food, all sorts of beverages including oranges with a straw shoved in it and sometimes with Jagermeister or Bacardi added, through to knives and sake glasses (it is Kitchen Town after all) and traditional crafts, there was something for everyone.

Aside from the cultural aspects, I learnt a few other things as a result of this walk:

• a bigger water bottle on hot days is a good idea
• so is a hair tie
• I really like my little towel
• even the street food is excellent
• it is tricky to use effectively an umbrella, fan and camera at the same time