Business Trip to South Korea #1

I went on a business trip to South Korea with my boss. The work itself was very meaningful and the time after work there was also very wonderful.

The only bad thing during the trip was its weather.
Rain, rain, rain, rain, cloudy, and rain.
I saw a clear sky only from an airplane.

Summer Festival

The other day, I took pictures of summer festival participants in front of my condo.

When I checking pictures, sometimes, I realize myself how little I know about Japanese traditional festival clothes and gears. For example, what are the wood sticks they are holding in the first picture, how do they use them and purposes?

Are there special meanings of the hats and caps they are wearing in the fist and the second picture?

Please tell me if you know some.

JAPAN Wins The FIFA WOMEN'S WORLD CUP GERMANY 2011

In the early morning today, Japan won the world cup football game in Germany.

I got up early and watched TV. It was a very exciting game.

I was happy to watch the live game.

People Celebrate Tanabata, A Japanese Star Festival

On my way from office to home on July 7th, I found bamboo trees decorated with colorful streamers, stars and small pieces of paper on which children wrote their wishes.

Those were Japanese traditional star festival decorations. I remember that I celebrated star festivals when I was a kid and that I wrote wishes and put them on a bamboo tree.
But, I can’t remember what kind of wishes I had at that time.

According to legend, the Milky Way separates two lovers Princess Orihime and Cow Herder Hikoboshi, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month. Tanabata celebrates the meeting of the Orihime and Hikoboshi.

-------------------Legend of Star Festval----------------------
Orihime (Weaving Princess), daughter of the Tentei(Sky King), wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa (Milky Way). 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 (Cow Herder Star) 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.
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Miyaichi-Sai, Summer Festival Is Held in Utsunomiya Today.

When I was taking a nap this afternoon, I overheard a sound of drums from outside. I got up, took an elevator to the ground floor and jumped out of my condo to see what’s going on outside.

Men and women, young and old, they were, not doing anti-government protest nor shouting against nuclear power plants, but they were enjoying their first summer festival in Utsunomiya, though it's still in the middle of a rainy season.

The scale of the festival was not so big as Miyamatsuri festival due in early August but I was able to get energy from them.