Our city had a Tanabata Festival this past weekend. It celebrates the meeting of the lovers Vega and Altair. The Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year. The characters on the streamer reads "tanabata." The city was very pretty with all the large streamers, some of which had lights and mechanical components to make them move. People write wishes on paper and hang them on bamboo. I read one written by a child that said "It'd be great if I could become a dog."
I was amazed at how many dancers there were. The parade kept going and going and going. I think the whole city came out.
There were vendors selling all kinds of food. There were lots of items on a stick including: sausage, chicken, potatoes, scallops, mussel, chocolate covered bananas, cucumbers, eggplant, candied plum, and the above pictured squid. The popular item seemed to be a baked potato with loads of butter.
The kids had fun playing games. In this game the kids have a paper scooper (plastic handle and rim, of course) and get as many balls out of the water as they can until the paper breaks. There is also a version with goldfish. 
I thought these sparrows were mechanical at first! Everyone was watching the dancers and I was looking in the opposite direction squealing over the baby bird. I couldn't stop watching. People might have assumed I was drunk.
Erik got a big kick out of this huge poster. Apparently this guy used to be famous...
