So I recently returned from a quick trip to Tokyo Disneyland Resort, where they just finished “Disney Tanabata Days.”

One of the shortest of the holiday seasons there, the celebration lasts about two weeks, and serves as the bridge between Easter and Summer events. There are no big shows as there usually are for the bigger holidays–just a small greeting at DisneySea, and a character cavalcade at Disneyland.

The story behind Tantabata is, as most good Japanese folk stories are, pretty tragical. Although there are many versions, the popular one starts with the Princess Orihime doing a fairly good job weaving cloth for her father Tentei, the Sky King. She becomes sad, however, because with all the weaving, she has no time to meet anyone. The King, in an effort to make his daughter happy, fixes her up with Hikoboshi, a cow herder (?) The two instantly fall in love and marry…except now they spend all their time with each other, and not weaving and cow herding. Eventually this angers Tentei, and he separates the two on either side of the Amanogawa (Heaven’s River) so that the two would never meet again.

Eventually Orihime cries to the point where Tentei relents and says that if she finishes her weaving, she and Hikoboshi might meet each other one day a year–the seventh day of the seventh month. Unfortunately, he doesn’t provide a bridge for them, so the first time they try to meet, they are unsuccessful. Orihime then cries again, and eventually magpies come and promise to come and make a bridge over the river so the two can finally be together.

If it rains, however, the magpies can’t manage it, and so it’s said that rain on July 7th means that the couple must wait another year to try again.

Tanabata is also known as the Star Festival, because Orihime and Hikoboshi are also the stars Vega and Altair, and the Amanogawa is the Milky Way.

The cavalcade and the greeting are both accompanied by the traditional Tanabata song, mixed in with “Wishes,” which is less traditional.

The translation of the song:

“The bamboo leaves rustle,
shaking away in the eaves.
The stars twinkle
on the gold and silver grains of sand.
The five-colour paper strips
I have already written.
The stars twinkle,
they watch us from heaven.”

The paper strips mentioned in the song are also known as “tanzaku.” People write down their wishes on them and then tie them to bamboo along with other decorations. At the Tokyo Disney Resort, there are Wishing Places in both parks and all the monorail stations–each with their own tanzaku.

Some people draw elaborately on their tanzaku. Hopefully their wishes all come true.

Special menus for the season were available in both parks, and in ToonTown “gachapon” machines (capsule, or when I was younger, bubblegum machines) dispensed seasonal items to long lines of guests.

A separately ticketed Tanabata show was also performed in DisneySea. These tickets were not purchasable online from overseas, or at the parks–only with a domestic credit card or at the “Loppi” machines that are omnipresent at the Lawson convenience stores. You can actually purchase tickets to any number of activities from these machines, including the popular Ghibli Museum, but the machines are not in English and the menus are sufficiently complex as to make it almost impossible for someone to know how to navigate them without a reasonable grasp on Japanese writing. Fortunately, the store workers are generally happy to assist you in getting what you need, provided you’re able to communicate that to them.

The show ticket also included a day’s admission to the park, so some planning was required to make sure you didn’t pick a day already covered by a multi-day ticket, as those tickets can only be used consecutively. As an added bonus, ticket holders received a bag with a program, stickers, and special tanzaku.

The show itself was fairly straightforward, with musical numbers starring the usual characters and a presentation of wishes towards the end. Little of it was in English, but it was largely understandable and the musical numbers, including “Wishes,” were very familiar.

On the whole, although it’s probably not a large enough affair to merit a special trip across the Pacific solely to see it, Tanabata is an excessively pretty celebration that also offers some Japanese cultural insight to the park guest.

[For more information on Tokyo Disney Resort, you can check back on a variety of excellent blogs AllEars has done over the years…and when you get tired of the good ones, there are mine, as well:
/blogs/guestblog/2008/04/a_trip_to_tokyo_disneyland_par_1.html
/blogs/guestblog/2008/04/a_trip_to_tokyo_disneyland_par.html
/blogs/guestblog/2008/04/a_trip_to_tokyo_disneyland_par_3.html
/blogs/guestblog/2008/04/a_trip_to_tokyo_disneyland_par_2.html
/blogs/guestblog/2008/04/tokyo_part_5_1.html
/blogs/guestblog/2008/05/a_trip_to_tokyo_disneyland_fin_1.html
/blogs/lauragilbreath/2011/11/holidays_at_the_tokyo_disney_r_1.html
/blogs/lauragilbreath/2011/12/holidays_at_the_tokyo_disney_r_2.html
/blogs/lauragilbreath/2011/12/holidays_at_the_tokyo_disney_r_4.html
/blogs/lauragilbreath/2011/12/holidays_at_the_tokyo_disney_r.html
/blogs/lauragilbreath/2012/01/holidays_at_the_tokyo_disney_r_5.html ]

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