Tanabata: To Happy Times

Saturday!!! PII has taught me to appreciate weekends. Very much so. The two days of the week with no quiz or test! Time to relax and have some fun up in this Japanese Joint!

I started off the morning by sleeping past my usual 7:30, meaning I got more than 5 hours of sleep!! Exciting news. Even more exciting was my breakfast.

 One of my favorite things my mom makes is grilled fish, so I was very happy on this fine Saturday morning! My mom is also very impressed by the way I eat the fish, leaving only the bare bones, head, and tail. I even eat the eyeballs, just for good measure. She took a picture of the remains (or lack there of) with her phone. Apparently, I'm amusing. 

After breakfast, I met up with Emmy, Aidan, and Marina at the International Lounge to celebrate Tanabata! 

In my very condensed version, Wikipedia ni yoru to, Tanabata celebrates the reunion of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi, who were separated by the Milky Way. Once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar calendar month, the two lovers are allowed to meet. 

To celebrate Tanabata in Japan, people often write their wishes on strips of paper, or tanzaku, and hang them on trees. So, at the lounge, we made various origami ornamentations to decorate our branches, along with a strip of paper for our wish! Mine says "Happiness," though I'd say I'm pretty darn happy here, so I guess my wish has already come true...

At the lounge, we were also served lunch! The women who run the lounge placed a GIANT platter of cold somen noodles for everyone to share. Just look at the size of the somen platter in comparison to the other plates. Massive, I tell you. And quite delicious. 

After lunch, Marina, Emmy, and I shopped around Katamachi for a bit and did some homework until 5:30. Emmy left to meet with her host family, while Marina and I walked to Berin's house (another PII student from Georgetown) for a Tanabata gathering!

Berin lives right along the Sai River in Katamachi, so he has a great central location! 

Marina and I thought that this was possibly the classiest road mirror we've ever seen: 

Just a short walk away from all the shopping, and we were greeted by a lovely Berin sporting a yukata! Welcome, indeed. 

Berin's host family is quite interesting. His host mother, Shunkou Saida, is quite a well known artist, 

known for her peel art, using fruit peels as her central medium for her art works. 

Their house also serves as a gallery/ store for her art, so it was really amazing inside! Definitely not a normal house...  

Everywhere I turned, there were numerous objects and artworks to look at! It was super duper cool . 

I loved the dangling dandelions from the ceiling. It was so whimsical!

Below are orange peel candles. Aren't they amazing?!

Quite a few PII students were at the party/ potluck, along with local students and friends. 

Since dinner was a potluck, there was a variety of food, including takoyaki, spaghetti, a spanish type omelette, and these individual sized Chirashi sushi with Pokemon kamaboko! Why do the Japanese just make everything so cute?

There was also this salad above with grapefruit, bell peppers, onions, and dried blueberries. So colorful. 

I ate outside along the river with some others, including Lucas and Marina. It turned out to be a pleasant evening after being dumped on by rain in the morning!

It was a great evening, conversing in Japanese with locals in an art gallery/ house with my friends! It was definitely a different experience that I would never have in America! I think I may have to think of a different wish because my day was filled with happiness! 

Good night!