七夕の時 (When We Celebrated Tanabata)

in which I try sake for the first time

So the Japanese celebrate a holiday called Tanabata (which was actually on Tuesday, 7/7), on which they believe two stars, Orihime and Hikoboshi, are united. The rest of the year, they are separated by the Milky Way and are thus sad (because I think they are lovers or something). So, because the day is special, everyone writes down wishes using special grammar on special paper that they hang on bamboo. We made some on Tuesday in Japanese class, but since there was no readily accessible bamboo, we couldn’t hang them up. Our professors did make them into cute little packets though.

I wished Eric would have fun in Taiwan, because he was thinking of going home.

Anyway, so today the ATW tutors threw a tanabata party for us, which served both as a party where we could make better friends with each other, and where we could discuss what time / when we would meet for Yamagasa next Wednesday. It was held in this really cool tatami room that I think was basically rented out for parties. There was an enormous amount of really good finger food, so we ate and drank beer for a long while. They also passed out new papers for us to write our wishes on, which we hung up on bamboo that was placed in the middle of the room. Eventually we started passing around a case of sake, which I had never tried before. Obviously I drank some (it was really sweet) and enjoyed it.

A poster meant to discourage alcohol-related sexual harassment...

Everyone putting their wishes on the bamboo.

Eventually it got dark, and we all had to go home. But it was fun while it lasted!