Today = Tanabata Festival

Later today and this evening, we are going to check out the Tanabata Festival, happening right outside our front door.  Well, sorta.  Our house faces a fence.  On the other side of that fence is the street where the festival happens.  We really do have almost a front row seat to a lot of festivals and parades that happen in Misawa City.  This is another thing I love about where we live, down to the location of our home.

The story of Tanabata is interesting, it is a love story.  You can read about it here and also here.  The date of the actual holiday is July 7th, but Misawa has its festival the last weekend in July.

I like to go out twice - once during the daylight to see all of the decorations, and then again after dark to see them all lit up!

Here are a few of our pictures from last year, from the after dark walk down the street.  

Each year there seems to be a different large decoration that depicts the story of Tanabata, and that one is always my favorite, especially at night when it is illuminated.  This was last year's:

This decoration featured a rocket and several planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Earth I think?

A somewhat rare picture of Jeff and I:

If we look hot, it's because we were.  Late July is typically hot and HUMID here.  Thankfully it's been rainy and cooler lately, so maybe today will be a better day to be out wandering around.  

I'm eager to see the decorations for this year's festival and will be taking a lot of pictures, I'm sure!