Tanabata Festival

 Yesterday I drove to Kumashi area schools. The view was remarkable, with the hills and the Sea of Japan:

 In the evening, Yakumo had its Tanbata Festival, or the Japanese Star Festival. It was at the kouminkan (公民館) Community Center, which is where I work for the board of education.

Here are some pictures of the nagashi somen, where you catch noodles coming down this pipe with chopsticks and dip them into the soup. I caught some!:



And just for fun, here are my "buying local" dairy purchases for the week:

And a hilarious "engrish" sign that I walk past every day from my apartment to the board of education. See it?