Today's news story can be found here. The story is an update about the conditions of the victims of the The Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku Earthquake which occurred about a month ago. There are a lot of people that still can not get to their houses and still have to live in emergency shelters with a lot of other people. In one of the shelters, in which over 100 people are not living, everyone is getting ready to celebrate Tanabata.
Tanabata is a Japanese star festival that is based on a Chinese star festival. The basic story is a story of two lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi who were separated from each other. The two lovers were only permitted one meeting a year on July 7th. It is a bitter-sweet love story that just happens to take place in the heavens. The Japanese celebrate Tanabata by setting up bamboo like in the picture below.
Everyone decorates the bamboo and writes wishes. The people in the emergency shelters wrote many wishes, but most of them went along the lines of "I hope I can go home soon." or "I wish I could see everyone smile again some time soon." I can only say I hope that get their wish.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 七夕(たなばた). It is pronounced tanabata and means the same thing. I always look towards Tanabata. A lot of the schools decorate their hallways with the bamboo and decorations made by the kids. It looks good. I just hope no one really believes that there is some super power that actually grants those wishes.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
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