osaka tanabata ekiden

Yesterday, I took the train a couple hours west to the hip city of Osaka. I met a couple friends, ate some food, and then ran in a race: The Osaka Castle Tanabata Relay.

I am not really sure how to explain Tanabata to you, but this is what my dictionary says:

The Star Festival. The Festival of the Weaver Star and the Cowherd Star [Vega and Altair] on July 7th.

This is what my coworker says:

It's when the prince star finally meets the princess star.

The stars do not physically meet--boy, would that be exciting!--nor do they visually meet. But, a story to that extent exists and it inspires a lot of wish-making.

I was not supposed to meet my teammates until 4:30 pm, so I met some other friends at noon and headed to the main part of town. It was rainy and a Sunday, so everyone was crowded into the covered streets of the shopping district. The sights and sounds were enlivening and I found myself wishing that I lived there.

The rain continued all afternoon, but it was not so heavy that the event was cancelled. I met my teammates and we headed to the race.

The race course had been changed. Instead of a 3k loop around the castle [short, and a little boring], the course was change to a straight shot up and back again along the flat-side of the loop [short, and very boring].

The team did okay. We finished 87th out of 250 teams. I was happy with my run as I passed more people than passed me.

After the race we headed to the nearest public bath house and got washed up. I had to leave early b/c of my resolve to take regular, non-bullet trains back to Ogaki. So, at 8:00 pm I said my fairwells.

The highlights of the day-trip were:
1) the crowded shopping district
2) the dated bath house, and
3) the man and pet ferret that I met on the train

I only took 1 photograph from the whole day, and it is of the man and ferret.

[click to enlarge]