Tanabata Matsuri at SN's nursery

Tanabata ("Evening of the seventh") is a Japanese star festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi. According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. This festival is celebrated every year on July 7 (or August 7 in some places). If you want to learn more about Tanabata, click here.

SN's nursery i.e. Kinomi Hoikuen(nursery) held the Tanabata Festival on the 9th July 2011 (hari BERSIH di Malaysia). During the Tanabata festival sprigs of bamboo, sometimes small and sometimes the size of a tree, are hung with tanzuku, papers upon people write their wishes. When this time of year comes around, people write their wishes on strips of paper and hang them on bamboo trees, along with decorations.

+- suasana kat nursery di hari festival -+

Kids were dressed in yukata/jinbei . A jinbei, is a traditional Japanese clothing and are usually worn as a form of nightwear or house wear. Sometimes jinbei are used as substitute for yukata during a summer festival, typically by men and boys. A yukata is a Japanese garment, a casual summer kimono usually made of cotton. People wearing yukata are a common sight in Japan at summer events.

+- chomeyl kan? -+

+- pandangan belakang yukata (one piece dress) & jinbei (baju & seluar) -+

+- macam2 gaya ada -+

+- cute girls in yukata -+

Like other Japanese matsuri, there are few stalls sell food, provide carnival games, etc., to add to the festive atmosphere at the nursery on the festival day.

+- macam2 aktiviti ada -+

The stalls were run by the teachers and the parents association. Actually I was given the task to be at the juice stalls and helped selling it during the event. But due to some miscommunication on my part, I didn't took part at the stalls. *miscommunication sebab I yang tak faham nihon-go kui3*.

+- cikgu2 yang chomeyl dan baik hati -+

+- SN dan cikgu2 nya -+

The event started at 4:30p.m until 8 p.m. My little baby was not in good mood that day as he didn't sleep during his afternoon nap time. Thus, in the evening he was a bit restless, tired and moody. Plus, the weather was quite hot on that day and SN was heavily sweating. It was quite unusual to see him being that moody because usually he is a cheerful boy.

+- SN duduk dengan kawan2 sekelas menunggu giliran untuk buat persembahan -+

+- cikgu tengah gelakkan SN sebab muncung panjang sedepa ke depan -+

At 6 p.m; the stalls were closed down and the front yard area was cleared for the performances by the children and teachers. SN is in Sakuranbo (cherry) class, and his class were the first one to make the performance on that day. They were dancing the Ocean Dance with the class teacher.

+- persembahan dari kelas SN : Sakuranbo -+

SN was still not in good mood during the performance, so he just stood still and watch his teachers and friends dancing. Only when the performance is almost over, he moved his body a little bit which doesn't looks like any dance movement at all, but at least he moved....OK lah kan?. Every children were then given a bag of gift as a token of appreciation for their performance.

+- tak menari sangat pun dapat gift jugak -+

+- (video) : persembahan SN dan kawan2 sekelas -+

Other class have performed different dance. The 4 years old kids make a Tanuki (raccoon) dance while the 5 years old kids performed a Fan Dance performance for the crowd.

+- persembahan tarian Raccoon -+

+- persembahan tarian kipas -+

The last performance was a sketch based on a famous Japanese children stories entitled したきりすずめ、Shitakirisuzume (The Sparrows' Inn). Read the stories below.

したきりすずめ Shitakirisuzume (The Sparrows' Inn )

Very long ago, in some place there was an old man and an old woman.
Every day the old man goes out to the mountain to cut firewood.

One day, the old man left his lunch hanging on a tree, and chunchun a sparrow approached.

"Oh, it is a delicious looking meal". The sparrow secretly dove into the lunch bag.

"Yare, yare, I'm hungry." (the old man said)

The old man stopped working, he tried to take the lunch bag, and (found) the sparrow sleeping with its head stuck out of the lunch bag.

"Yoshi, yoshi, I also feed you."

Do you know what happened when the old man opened the bag?. The sparrow had already made a hearty meal of the lunch, and was fat as a ball.

The old man took the sparrow back home. The sparrow was quite cute, and chirp chirp, it never left the old man's side.

The old man named this sparrow Ochon, and raised her with great care.

It was a day of good weather. The old woman was cooking starch, gutsugutsu, on the fireplace. "Old man, please go quickly to work."

"But, Ochon is so cute..." The old man picked Ochon up in his hand and did not part from her.

"Crap!, you only love the sparrow." the old woman said angrily.

So the old man reluctantly parted with Ochon and went out to the mountain to work.

"Ochon, watch the starch closely so that the cat doesn't eat it." The old woman went to the river to wash clothes.

The starch cooled down nicely, and looked quite delicious. Ochon could no longer resist and ate the starch. The old woman came back, and there was no starch in the pot.

"Ochon, what happened to the starch."

"The cat ate it."

The old woman looked at the cat's mouth and did not see any starch there. But on Ochon's mouth there was a lot of starch.

Ochon hurriedly licked, but it was too late.

"You ungrateful thing!" The old woman was angry and she cut Ochon's tongue with scissors, and drove her outside.

The old man wanted to see Ochon and when the work finished he hurried back. But Ochon's figure was not there.

"Old woman, what happened to Ochon."

" She ate the starch, so I cut her tongue and did the favor of driving her out."

"What! Such a cruel thing..." . The old man poroporo shed tears. For a while he was looking miserable, but when he thought of Ochon he was not able to be still.

"I am going to search for Ochon."

Sparrow Ochon which way did you go?


Cut tongue sparrow which way did you go?
While calling with a trembling voice the old man went walking sadly.

And then a cow washer was washing a cow in the river. "Mr. cow washer, Mr. cow washer, haven't you seen cut tongue sparrow?"

"I saw I saw. But, unless you drink three buckets of water used to wash the cow I won't tell you."

The old man patiently drank that water.

"Then you had better ask the horse washer over there."

--
He went for a while and, a horse washer was washing a horse in the river.

"Mr. horse washer, Mr. horse washer, haven't you seen cut tongue sparrow?"

"I saw I saw. But, unless you drink three buckets of water used to wash the horse I won't tell you."

The old man patiently drank that water. "Then you had better ask the greens washer over there."
--

Once again he went for a while, and The greens washer was washing Japanese raddish in the river.
"Mr. greens washer, Mr. greens washer, haven't you seen cut tongue sparrow?"

"I saw I saw. But, unless you drink three buckets of water used to wash the raddish, I won't tell you."

The old man patiently drank that water.

"Then you had better go to the bamboo grove over there."
--
Cut tongue sparrow which way did you go?
Sparrow Ochon which way did you go?

The old man entered into the bamboo grove, and From a hole in one thick bamboo there was a sparrow's voice.

"Old man, or old woman?"

"This is old man this is old man."

"Then please enter without delay."

The old man peeped into the hole in the bamboo, and In a moment his surroundings became dark, and he lost consciousness

--
Ha! he regained consciousness, and the old man was sitting in a magnificent drawing room.

"Old man, welcome."

Sparrows wearing pretty kimonos were carrying delicious food and singing songs. The old man forgot the passing of time and was charmed.

When the old man was about to return, the sparrows brought two wicker baskets.

"Old man, this is a gift. Which to you want, the heavy basket or the light basket?"

"I am old so the light one is good."

The old man returned home and opened the basket,and guess what happened. It was full of large and small gold coins.

"Wow, old man, where did you get it."

"I received it from the sparrows." The old man told the old woman today's story in detail.

Immediately, the old woman said, "What a fool you are. Why didn't you bring the heavy basket. Alright, I am going."
--

Cut tongue sparrow which way did you go?
Sparrow Ochon which way did you go?

The old woman shouted and from the hole in the bambu there were sparrows voices.

"Old man, or old woman?"

"This is old woman this is old woman."

"Then please enter without delay."

She regained consciousness and without knowing when it happened the old woman was sitting in a drawing room. And then sparrows wearing kimonos brought tea in a chipped cup.

"I don't want such a thing as tea. Give me the wicker basket right away." The old woman put the heavy basket on her back and quickly left.

But the basket was heavy and the old woman staggered over there, and staggered over here. Finally, she came out of the bambu grove and she couldn't walk even one step more.

"While taking a rest around here shall I try and peek in?"

The old woman took off the basket, and quietly opened the lid.

"Gyaaa!" The old woman jumped up. Surprisingly from within the basket one after another snakes and centipedes and other things came out and bit and stung the old woman to death.

It was nice to see how sporting the teachers were to dance and make a performance for the crowd.It's good to see that Japanese people still appreciate the Traditional Japanese Children's Stories and narrated it to the younger generation in a more creative way.

+- tarian oleh cikgu2 -+

We called the day off at 8 p.m. Hubby and I treasure the experience of celebrating the Tanabata Festival at SN's nursery despite SN being moody on that day. As for me, I really enjoy watching all the kids that are looking so kawaii (cute) in their yukata/jinbei dress. Super duper chomeyl!.

+- dengan family Kimura-san yang jadi translator kitorang -+

Psssssttt: geram nak cubit2 pipi anak2 Jepun ni, putih2 gebu2 semua. Anak I je yang kaler coklat sikit eheh.

~ Thanks for reading this (^-*) ~