The Tanabata decorations familiar as Palaceside Building’s summer fixture are up again this week in the atrium of the first-floor and first-basement central
corridor. Through July 9.
The Palaceside Building Meitencai (chair Hiroaki Okada, president of Sakae Co., which runs Tea Room Hana), made of restaurant and shop volunteers, plans this each year as a “Tanabata Festival” so people can feel the season and enjoy a popular Japanese tradition.
Twelve large paper lanterns hang from the atrium ceiling; below them, with ten pots of bamboo in the middle, small pipe cages are set east and west (photo at upper right), and LED lights evoking the Milky Way lift the mood. Meitencai tapestries hang on the east and west atrium walls (photo at middle right).
Desks are ready at two spots; writing a wish on a tanzaku slip and hanging it on the bamboo or cages is also yearly. Today (the 10th) is the fifth day; people can be seen writing with zeal (photo at lower right), and the slips grow a little each day.
A few: as in the photo below, the orthodox from the job-hunt front, “May I get an offer,” and from workers, bluntly, “Salary UP!” From pro-baseball fans, “Yakult win” and “Carp win” sit side by side.
Women seek beauty: “−7 kg by summer,” “May my chest grow” — and beyond that, “May I get a boyfriend”… “A wonderful, refreshing handsome guy” may be a bit greedy.
Above all, “a world without strife” and “the whole family well” are universal wishes — a fitting close.
So that wishes may come true, the slips will, as usual, be dedicated at Kanda Myojin after Tanabata. Please do write one.
July 5 (Tue)–7 (Thu) there is a “grand draw.” Scratch cards go to those who eat or shop at Meitencai members; winners may join twice each day (11:30–14:00 and 17:00–20:00). Prizes: Tanabata prize = Dyson Pure Hot + Cool (3); 1st = travel vouchers (50,000 yen, 3); 2nd = iPad Air 2 (3); 3rd = PlayStation 4 (3); 4th = rice cookers (3); 5th = Apple TV (5); 6th = electric toothbrushes, facial devices, blood-pressure meters and more (15 in all) — 1,735 items, 1.6 million yen in all (1.2 million last year). Stay tuned!!
