Today in language class we celebrated a holiday that the Japanese hold on the 7th of July called Tanabata.

The premise behind this holiday is that the Sky King had a daughter named Orihime who worked really hard to weave cloth for her father because he really liked it. Because of this she was so busy that she never had any fun. Her father therefore arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi, a cow farmer from the other side of the Milky Way. After they were married, they spent all of their time together, so the Sky King had no cloth, and Hikoboshi's cows wandered all over the heavens. The Sky King then forced them to stay on other sides of the river, only to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month each year. The first time they tried to meet, there was no bridge, so a flock of magpies formed one for them to meet. The people who celebrate this holiday hope for good weather so the magpies can come and the two can meet. I believe the constellations also align in the sky.

Before this holiday, people write their wishes on small pieces of paper, and tie them to trees, in hopes that there will be good weather and the Orihime and Hikoboshi will see them.

After class, we mostly just studied, because we have a big test tomorrow on pretty much everything. Language class is ending, and we're only going to have the Japanese for Science and Technology (which includes the Rube Goldberg machine project) and Japanese Culture classes. Actually, after tomorrow, we only have two more weeks of classes, and then we move out by the 18th, but I'm sticking around a little bit in Japan for travel.