The Palaceside Building's annual Tanabata decorations color the summer. About three weeks after they appeared on the 3rd, people still keep writing wishes on tanzaku at the desk and hanging them on the bamboo =photo above.
The slips grow by the day and now make quite a volume. We looked at a few.
The contents range from family and friends, health, study, work and money to world peace. This year we grouped them under three themes.
First, sports. Starting with pro baseball's Central League =photo above. Besides a Carp four-peat, every club has a fair showing. Someone cheering both the Giants and Hanshin is unusual. "Anti-Gian"... hm? "Gian"? Is that from Doraemon?
For hometown Tokyo's Yakult, a modest (?) wish not for "championship" but a "return to .500." The struggle makes the devoted fans' feelings come through.
In the Pacific League, Seibu and Nippon-Ham stand out; western teams were nowhe
re to be seen =photo above.
J.League notes come from Kashiwa and Nagoya fans =photos left and below.
Next, health. General prayers are many; we picked a few concrete ones =photo below.
Gout — quite a few people in pain? Blood sugar and triglycerides look serious too. Lifestyle often plays a part, and in the end it can land on the liver. Still — more than praying to the gods, you have to review your own diet and habits; writing it on a slip is probably a way to confirm the resolve to change.
Finally, work-style reform =photos right and below. Sexual and power harassment are urgent themes. Everyone knows they are wrong, yet they do not go away... is that the reality?
Correcting long hours is another big issue. "I want to go home early," of course, and unpaid overtime without overtime pay may still be common.
As we noted on this blog on the 3rd, the Palaceside Building Meitokai (chair Hiroaki Okada, president of Sakae Co., which runs Tea Room Hana), a volunteer group of the building's restaurants and shops that organizes the decorations, is also running a "Tanabata Festival Grand Lottery." Stamp-rally cards are handed out at member shops; one stamp per visit of 500 yen or more, and five stamps earn one garapon draw. Draws are June 28 (Fri) and July 5 (Fri), each in two sessions: 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m. and from 5:30 p.m. They end when the planned number is reached.
Prizes are lavish: gold — Dyson air-purifying fans (2); silver — Nintendo's latest game consoles (3); more than 1 million yen in total!!