Tanabata Festival Continued again

 This guy was play some really good mellow jazz. I stood and listened for a long time.

 The park, which is in the middle of town, has running water and on extremely hot days like this the kids play in the water.

 The sign with the blue circle around a cigarette says that this is a smoking place. The whole park, except for here, is no smoking. This is something that would never have happen, even just 10 years ago. People are becoming very conscious of the rights of non-smokers and the health issues involved for smokers. This had led to the acceptance of no smoking areas, even trains and taxis are partially or all smoke free. Notice the main in the middle is wiping his face with a handkerchief. The temperature was in the mid 30s C.

 This is people entering the park through the official gate. I apparently came in through the side and not a gate. As they enter, people are being given a fan and some snacks. I did not bother to go and wait in the long line.

 These people are eating lunch. Notice the way the woman on the right is squatting. This is a pose that every Japanese easily assumes and used for resting. I have never been able to do this, which makes using a Japanese style toilet a real problem.

The space on the right is a pool so only the kids are there, but the rest of the grounds are just flooded with people. I said in an earlier post that they had many more people than expected. The newspapers reported that the shops selling food had to close early in the afternoon because they ran out of food. This is great because it injects some money into the economy which is very much on the rocks here in Northeastern Japan.