And then, something happened. I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.
—Fight Club

What does this photo have to do with Fight Club? Not much. But it is a slide and as soon as I thought of that title, I recalled the movie. Still confused? Viewers may remember during one of Jack's meditation sessions (at the session where he met Marla, if memory serves) he encounters a penguin that tells him "slide" before going down one.

This photo may be what my friend Tom McLaughlan call a Ministract, which is what he labels his brand of photos which are both abstract and minimalistic. Go check out his site if you are in the mood. He has been perfecting his style for many years and he is very good.

Hey, by the way, a few days ago on July 7th was Tanabata—star festival! This is a popular day in Japan. @koto-art talked about the day in her post here.

The myth story is a good story, and women often find it sweet. The TL;DR version is that Princess Orihime and Prince Hikoboshi can only meet can only meet once per year, when the stars Vega and Altair come together, so we are celebrating that meeting.

A popular custom is to write a wish on a strip of paper and hang it from the branch of a bamboo tree. Typically this is a rectangular strip of paper hung vertically, called a tanzaku (短冊). Another use of tanazaku is for poetry, and in fact traditionally people would write their tanabata wishes in the form of a poem.

The date of the day is a little tricky. Before 1876 Japan used the Chinese lunisolar calendar, which is about a month (roughly) behind the Western calendar. Some events keep the same date (which is essentially now a month early) and some events delay the date a month to keep the event celebration at the same time it would have been on the old calendar. Most festivals keep the same date, and Tanabata is no exception. On the old calendar it was celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month so it is celebrated July 7th now. But some places (like Sendai) move it back a month to celebrate it Aug 6-8, which is fairly close to when it would have been on the old calendar.

Confusing, eh? Welcome to Japan. But the good news is if you really like the festival, you can celebrate it twice just by traveling a little bit.

	David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.