Tenjin Tanabata Matsuri

Tanabata (Japanese: 七夕) is a Japanese star festival. It celebrates the meeting of Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). 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 festival takes place at evening on the 7th-July each year. People generally celebrate this day by writing wishes on small pieces of paper, and hanging them on bamboo. The bamboo and decorations are often set afloat on a river or burned after the festival, around midnight or on the next day. Many areas in Japan have their own Tanabata customs and the Tenjin shrine in Osaka is mostly famous for granting the wish to find a great partner and love.

Transport: The Tenjin Jinja is within walking distance of the well connected Namba train station. It’s one of the smaller festivals and at evening there are also plenty of parking spaces available if you want to come by car.

Website: The official website (all in Japanese) is the one of the Tenjin-Jinja Shrine, that celebrates and organizes this event. The Milky Way Celebration is a separate event that is 3 minutes of walk down to the south. The milky way celebration is best viewed around 8pm.