Tanabata

In Japan, July 7 is a holiday called Tanabata, which in Hakodate at least is sort of like Christmas and Halloween all rolled into one. First (and this is common all over Japan) you take these strips of colored paper and write out an お願い、or a wish, and then hang them from a bamboo stalk which is placed in the entryway. That's the Christmas part. The picture to the left is my Tanabata wish. For those of you who can't read Japanese, it says "I want to become good at kanji." ;-P
Next (the Halloween part), on the evening of Tanabata the little kids all dress up in yukata and go around from house to house singing a Tanabata song, and they get candy (sounds familiar, right?). Apparently, though, this tradition is really only in Hakodate (too bad for the other kids, huh?)
Here are some pictures of the kids all dressed up (kawaii!), and onw of my host mom handing out おかしい (sweets).









Below is a short video I took of the kids singing the Tanabata song!