The family and I headed out today to visit the Japanese Friendship Garden located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. Normally there isn't much of a line at the park, maybe a short one, but today it was probably 60-70 people deep when we first arrived and we weren't really sure why there was such a big line. I quickly pulled out my phone to see if an event was going on and sure enough there was! Today the Japanese Friendship Garden was celebrating with the Tanabata Festival.
Tanabata, which is also known as the 'star festival,' takes place on the 7th of July. The star festival originates from Chinese legends about two stars, Altair and Vega, being separated by the Milky Way. In Japan they are better known as Orihime and Hikoboshi. This day is the one day a year they are able to meet.
In some places in Japan, the festival still takes place on August 7th. This is because August more closely coincides with the 7th month of the traditional lunar calendar. However, other parts of Japan celebrate it on July 7th
As we entered the garden and funneled into the first area, they had a few games for children to play and an area for children to partake in Sumi-e, a traditional Japanese painting style. The kids passed on the painting today and went straight to the games, where they were able to play a few and pose for some pictures with the fukinagashi, the decorative streamers located in the front area.
After this, we moved on to participating in a Tanabata custom where each person writes a wish on a piece of paper. Once completed, each person hangs their piece of paper on a special bamboo tree, hoping their wish comes true. Pretty funny, my oldest child wished for the coolest Lego set, and my youngest drew a picture of a car. Any guesses what he wants?
At this point, my kids were already getting tired and hot. If it gets above 80 degrees, they melt, I guess that's a byproduct of them growing up in California! We quickly walked around and took a look at the rest of the Japanese Friendship Garden. We even stopped by the food offerings they had today, but my kids weren't willing to stop and eat.
We like to come here often when it is less busy because there are a lot of calming places to sit, relax, and listen to the running water from their small waterfalls. But today, it was the exact opposite; the garden was filled with a lot of energy and a lot of people. I managed to grab a few more pictures of the area but it was a bit harder than normal to grab pictures without filling like I was being rude by holding up a pathway or snapping a picture with a lot of people who I didn’t know in the picture.
My favorite area is probably the viewing area for the rock garden, or just the pathway in general. These areas seemed the most peaceful and serene, especially today when a lot of the other areas were super busy. We weren't there for very long, about an hour in total, but I'm glad I could bring a few of you along with us on our visit!