Let's Have Fun: Manga and Anime Part II, Tanabata Festival

6:30-7:00 Summer Festival in Japan, July 7th Movement of male and female stars which occurs once every 7 years. Japanese people write wishes. July/August 7
Star Festival (tanabata): Tanabata is a festival rather than a national holiday.
Tanabata (七夕, tanabata?, meaning "Evening of the seventh") is a Japanese star festival, related to the Chinese star festival, Qixi．It celebrates the meeting of Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). According to legend, the Milky Way, a river made from stars that crosses the sky, 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. The celebration is held at night

To celebrate this festival, Masayo had a Show and Tell of Japanese Food, part of which came from her personal garden. Soba noodles, Edamane/Traditional Rice crakers eaten like chips with beer. She also brought several equivalents to chips, some made of fish and seaweed. Masayo also brought samples of several Japanese drinks. Foods can be purchased at Super Cao. We had an idea to talk to Super Cao owners to give discounts to JASO members. We will need to issue a JASO wallet membership card for that purpose.

The discussion also brought to light that even numbers are bad in Japan and Russia, but not in China. #4 sounds like death and people even in China avoid saying that number.

For dessert, Masayo brought Poki and Gigi brought delicious fruit and a seaweed based dessert.

Masayo introduced old manga and anime shorts from You Tube, and Gigi brought the Manga and Anime movie we started to watch in June. It was a very nice way to end the day watching the Tokyo Godfathers film and Tetsujin 28 on YouTube

Participants: Masayo, Jeremy, Gigi, her husband, 2 friends of Gigi from Catholic Charities, Carmen, and the lady from Russia whose name I do not recall.

Masayo received payment for two tickets to the ASO Taste of Asia and she announced that the ASO scholarship application is available for college and high school age members.