How about early-summer flowers? On the 1st, before Boys' Day, Palaceside Building's basement-first-floor central corridor offered visitors small purple hanashobu wrapped in cellophane.
The "Palaceside Building Meiten-kai" association of restaurants and shops planned this as part of the annual carp streamer event so people can feel the season even inside a city building.
From 11:30 a.m., members stood in the central corridor saying "Please take a flower," handing one stem each to families heading to restaurants, OLs, and office workers. All 600 stems were gone before 1:30 p.m.— hugely popular. Members explained carefully—"Hanashobu flowers don't last long, but a second bloom follows the first"—and passersby accepted with smiles.
The hanashobu giveaway continues on the 2nd.