jikan ga nai

My sporadic updates are about to become even more infrequent; in addition to my full-time job managing game localization projects here in Tokyo and my part-time jobs writing for Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) and Nintendo Official Magazine (UK), I've started going to school to study Japanese...full-time. So yes, I'm in class for over three hours a day, every day, in addition to doing all my regular work and trying to maintain a social life.

Of course, I'll try to sneak in an update here and there, but I can't promise too much. In the meantime, wish me luck -- this class is seriously intense!

BTW, an important note to those of you who have e-mailed me recently and not received a response: I have not forgotten you!! I've just been so busy with all this stuff going on that I haven't had any time to catch up on mail. I'll do my best to start picking away at the backlog ASAP (I'm several months behind now, believe it or not). Please be patient and don't hate me for being such a slowpoke!

tanabata matsuri

This past Wednesday (July 7) was Tanabata day in Japan. Tanabata is an old story about a princess named Orihime and a regular guy named Hikoboshi who fell in love but wound up only being able to see each other once a year.

The story goes something like this: A long time ago, Tenkou, the god of the sky, had a daughter named Orihime. She was a weaver who wove clothes for the gods using a special machine called Tanahata (it's assumed this is where the word Tanabata came from).

Orihime worked really hard every day, but Tenkou started to worry that she might not be happy because all she ever did was work. So, he traveled across the river of stars (Amanogawa -- i.e. the Milky Way) to find her a groom to make her happy. He came back with another workaholic, a guy named Hikoboshi, whose job was to take care of cows.

The two fell in love immediately and wound up spending all their time together, hardly ever doing any work. Because of this, the cows got sick and the gods' clothes got old and outdated. This angered Tenkou, so he decided to take Orihime to the other side of Amanogawa, where she wouldn't be able to see Hikoboshi anymore. Unfortunately, this made the two lovers so sad that they couldn't do any work at all, making the situation even worse.

Tenkou felt a little bad for making his daughter so sad, so he came up with a plan. He told the lovers that if they worked their butts off all year long, he'd let them see each other for one day -- July 7. And so, the two started working hard again -- harder than ever before -- so that they could see and embrace each other every year on July 7.

That's where the story ends. Presumably, everyone lived happily ever after.

Romantic, isn't it? I first learned about Tanabata last year when I saw a huge Tanabata tree near the station in Kawasaki where I used to live. People write their wishes on little colored slips of paper and then hang them from the branches of the tree during the days leading up to July 7. I was going to post about this last year (I actually started writing this very post on July 1, 2003), but I never got around to it.

Anyway, this year, I went to a huge Tanabata Matsuri (festival) in Hiratsuka with my girlfriend. It was really, really cool -- lots of colorful decorations and lights, tons of food stands and games, and of course a gazillion people dressed up in yukatas and the like just generally having a good time.

The highlights were all the beautiful decorations people (and presumably advertising companies) made:

The above shot shows one of the many Tanabata trees that were on display. I can't tell you what my wish was, but I promise it had nothing to do with games!

These two puppies were easily the best-dressed of all the animals in attendance. Check out those stylin' yukatas!

One of dozens of games that attendees could play. For 300 yen, you got a little cup attached to a stick. If you could catch three turtles before the cup broke, you got to keep one. Believe it or not, one of these little guys actually came home with us. His name is Nokonoko (Nokkun for short), and he's surprisingly genki! Still, we'll probably hand him off to a pet shop soon, as we're not really set up for taking care of a third body right now. To be fair, he does seem pretty comfy in his little glass pot home with his steady diet of katsuoboshi (sliced, dried bonita), but still... I'm sure he'd be better off in the hands of a pro. For now, though, we'll be sure to make the most of our time with the little guy! :)