Kansai! Tanabata

Tanabata (七夕) or "star festival" is usually celebrated in Japan around 7th of July, that is if the festival is held by the modern calender. If the omatsuri takes place by old calender, it will be one month later, early August. Tanabata festival is based to an old god legend about Princess Orihime (Vega star) and cow herder Hikoboshi (Altar star) who lived Heaven on the bank of Milky Way (天の川) and fell in love so enthustiacly that they forgot their duties thus other gods faced touble. Orihime's father Tentei (The sky god or the university itself) decided to separate the couple so that one would live in the other side of Milky Way and other on the opposite side. The couple got so sad that Tentei felt pity over them and decided that they can meet during one day of the year, 7th of July, when we can see on the sky the two stars coming close on the same side of Milky Way. In these days the festival is much of a second valentines day in Japan, but also has a lot of other events surrounding it.

So we were lucky enough to be in Kyoto on the first week of August because in Kyoto the Tanabata is celebrated by the old calender. There was one week long event going on and in the city the biggest happenings were pinpointed in two locations. We went to see both, the one on the river bend and one in the inner city. It was terribly hot on the day time, but luckily the events took place mainly at the evening after sunset, when all the lights lit for the omatsuri got the display they deserved. Events we saw included a lots of small happenings, wind chimes on the river bend and path in the inner city decorated by art university students from Kyoto prefecture area. There was actually less people than what I had expected allowing us to hang pretty freely this time, just enjoying about the summer night in Kyoto.

Other strolls we did in Kyoto included one common sighseeing: Buddhist temple Kiyomizu-dera, which was as expected, full of people. We survived the small hill climb accompanied by small struggle with heat (about 37 Celsius degrees). Still the view from the temple over Kyoto was pretty as ever. We also visited smaller temples in the outskirts of Kyoto, were our rental apartment were. I personally enjoyed those more, but it was also fun to see the buzzing over the World heritage monuments. For me strolling on the streets of Kyoto was also somewhat nostalgic experience. There wasn't much that had changed in three-four years. I even found some shops I liked last time, which I found kind of rare because in Japan it seems to be a trend to shops to have a very short life span.

the Way to Kiyomizu-dera

Tanabata festival

Strolls in Kyoto