The Star Festival

Today is the star festival in Japan, or "tanabata". There's a story from a Chinese legend, and basically there are two stars that are separated by the Milky Way. They can only meet once a year, on the night of July 7. People decorate bamboo branches with decorations and paper strips with their wishes written on them.
I did this yesterday, and although I took a few pictures, I can't add them now. (I'll probably cheat and add them another time to this post)




Anyway, yesterday was fun because my class went on a field trip to see the Nagoya TV tower. We also went to a hyaku-en shop, which is like a dollar store. Sophia, Amanda, and I did purikura there (I'm not sure which verb fits to "purikura", by the way).
I realize I haven't explained what purikura is, if you don't know. "Purikura" comes from "purinto kurabu", from the English "print club". It's basically a photo booth where you can choose colorful backgrounds and then draw on it and add decorations and stuff. They're mostly only found in parts of Asia, I believe.

A view from the TV tower:


This weekend my host grandma bought me a yukata as a gift. A yukata is a type of kimono kind of, but a lot lighter. I got to choose mine. It's really pretty and I'm very grateful for it. I need to think of something special to do for my host family sometime...