Hannan English Media Society
All about TANABATA
We will tell the story of TANABATA at the Faculty of Tourism in Minami Campus.
TANABATA is a Japanese summer festival celebrated on July 7th.
It celebrates the meeting of ORIHIME and HIKOBOSHI and their falling in love. It's a long story but basically there was a family falling out and ORIHIME and HIKOBOSHI were set apart by the Milky Way. Legend says they can only meet once a year on July 7th.
Every year we celebrate TANABATA at Minami campus by decorating the foyer with sasa - bamboo grass.
So where do we get this sasa ? We interviewed Mr.Asai from Hannan University administration office to find out.
Interview with Asai-san (office manager)
Q: Is the Sasa provided for free or do we pay for it?
A: It is the completely free.
Q: How is Sasa moved to the campus? (How to enter to campus and out from campus)
A: I’m not sure as Sumitomo-Ringyo do all the moving.
Q: How long has Sasa been coming to Hannan?
A: It came 3 or 4 years ago for the first time. Actually before that they cut bamboo at the back of a campus for the Sasa.
Q: Where did the Sasa come from?
A: It came from a mountain which Sumitomo-Ringyo own.
Q: Whose idea was it to bring the Sasa?
A: It was the Gakuseikai’s idea and Kyoumu supported them.
Q: How long do they leave the Sasa for?
A: About 1 week from the day of delivery.
Q: How do we care for it?
A:We only water it with water from a bucket.
Q: Where do the Tanzaku go after the Tanabata festival?
A: They are thrown out.
Q. What do you think is the most interesting wish?
A: The wishes are typical of students and are interesting and cute. For example, “I want a boyfriend/a girlfriend.
We interviewed Nakajima-san from GAKUSEIKAI (school council) and Ohtani-sensei.
According to Nakajima-san, GAKUSEIKAI had some stalls for students. There were frankfurters, , milk rice crackers available. The most popular food was poutine!! It is from Canada. She also talked about an exciting contest. It was called “Orihime and Hikobosi Contest”. Ohtani-sensei told us that teachers introduced examples of history, differences of regions and town revitalization for Tanabata festival. In addition a kimono teacher explained about the culture of Tanabata clothing.
Other information
・The International Tourism Faculty had lessons about Tanabata at the beginning of a class on that day. All of teachers used to give students knowledge about Tanabata from various points of view connected with their classes.
・The bamboo at the back of the campus ran out so the university asked Sumitomo-Ringyo to give us the Sasa. The first contract was only a year but the Gakuseikai sent a letter of appreciation and pictures. Thanks to that they have given us one every year. The Gakuseikai have kept sending a letter of appreciation and pictures every year.