Tanabata decorations appeared on the 6th on the first floor and basement first floor of the Palaceside Building. They were a familiar seasonal feature of the building, but because of the pandemic they were skipped two years in a row from 2020; this is a return after three years. People have already been lining up to write wishes on tanzaku strips.
It is the 13th “Tanabata Festival” put on by the Palaceside Building Meitinkai (chair Hiroaki Okada), a volunteer group of the building’s restaurants and shops. In a typical year colorful streamers and illumination fill the atrium, but in light of the infection situation the scale was cut sharply. Fourteen potted bamboo for tying tanzaku were lined along the basement first-floor corridor, and bamboo-leaf ornaments were set at each shopfront to create a festive space.
At the corner for writing wishes, people coming back from meals wrote whatever they hoped for on the strips and tied them to the bamboo. After Tanabata the strips will, as usual, be dedicated at Kanda Myojin.