Tanabata Matsuri

Tanabata Matsuri (Star Festival) in Obihiro
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

Written on August 5, 2006
Yesterday Keenan and I went to the Tanabata Matsuri (Star Festival) in downtown Obihiro with Bret, Sara and Daryl. This festival is geared towards kids and features all sorts of huge piñata type decorations that hang down from the rafters of the koji (covered walkway). They shut down the traffic in the koji and the street is filled with kids of all ages decked out in yukata (traditional Japanese hot weather clothes) running thru the streamers trailing down from the decorations. There is no shortage of festival food, games and trinkets to spend your hard earned yen on. It was too hot to be out for more than a few hours so we didn’t get to any of the celebrations and merry making at the Buddhist temples which had me a bit sad but we were happy to get back home and have a cool bath. Keenan did get to wear his yukata that Pat bought him and he was stopping lots of gramma’s I’ll tell ya!