Yesterday we reprised last year’s Tanabata matsuri festivities with MJ & Yoshi. I brought my DV camera; Tod carried his new D-70 digital camera. Dressed in men’s indigo jinbei (traditional loose jackets with shorts), we captured the festival thoroughly and probably turned a few heads–henna gaijin (weird foreigners) wearing Japanese clothes.
I hoped to make a short film about Altair and Vega, the stars of the matsuri, but Tod declined to be my leading man. Still, I shot a lot of footage and you’ll see a brief documentary, “Scenes from Shonan Hiratsuka Tanabata,” on Wednesday the 7th, the actual date of Tanabata.