Tuesday, July 07, 2009

TANABATA

Today, July 7 is TANABATA, the star festival. I'm not sure we will able to see stars in the sky this night, until now it is sunny.
We( though these days the family they have small kids) celebrate this day by putting a bamboo tree at the entrance, and also write our wish on colourful oblong papers (TANZAKU) and hang them on it.

Well, from last week to this week I'm called TANABATA week.
It is a good opportunity to make a sentence with "I hope" (high school students also make another sentence with "I wish").
Students wishes are really concrete, thought sometimes it's impossible.
I hope my Japanese will improve.

The typical wishes are
I hope I will be rich.
I hope my marks improve.
I hope I become a good piano player.
or
I hope I will be accepted by the high school I want to go.
or
I hope I will be intelligent.

and sometime material, though these days such kids are getting less because we are surround by lots of goods.
I hope I get a pet dog.
I hope I get a ??? game.


Well, Well, what kinds of wish will I write on my TANZAKU ?
I hope I will rich, in this case, I need to change, I wish to be rich ( or I wish I were rich??)
I hope my English skill improve, -- I should study English though this sentence is not "wish" but pledge.
I hope I will keep my strength and health. This sentence looks like the sentence "I hope I will be intelligent".
Kids and I are not so different.

What wishes would you like to write on the card?

4 comments:

Tim Frost said...

Is it permitted to wish something for someone else?

If so, I wish two things:

1. Clear skies in Utsunomiya tonight for a partial lunar eclipse visible in Japan.

2. That you read your blog comments before the eclipse happens!

Anonymous said...

Hi, Tim
One of your wish came true.. too exaggerated.
I didn't know that penumbral eclipse and even the word "penumbral" in Japanese.
If the sky is clear, my students and I will look at the sky through the binoculars. By the way do you know that July 22, we can see eclipse of the sun in Japana.
Thanks for your comments!

Anonymous said...

Now it is 10:30 PM, today's lessons are all finished.
I looked at the sky around 7:30 PM, but unfortunately it was cloud.
But I told about today's partial lunar eclipse to the junior high school students who came at night.

Tim Frost said...

So, only one wish was granted.
Actually, I think that the penumbral eclipse would not have been impressive. From your location, the shadow would have been very slight.

I did hear about the total eclipse of the sun on 22nd July. Unfortunately, you are not is a good place to see it either. You need to go to Satsunan Shoto. Where you are, the sun will be only 70% covered, so it will not become dark. There is even a big difference between 100% covered and 99% covered.

I was lucky enough to see the total eclipse in August 1999. It was a wonderful and strange experience.