Asagaya Tanabata Matsuri Festival 2009 阿佐谷七夕まつり
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JR Asagaya Station is slightly decorated with Tanabata streamers.
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JR Asagaya Station during the Tanabata Matsuri in early Aug. Get out the south (minami) exit of the station.
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For five days centering on Aug. 7, a shopping arcade called Asagaya Pearl Center holds the Asagaya Tanabata Matsuri featuring colorful streamers and popular characters festooning the shops. These photos were taken in Aug. 2009.
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The Asagaya Tanabata Matsuri started in 1954 by local merchants to attract more customers.
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Entrance to Asagaya Pearl Center. Originally, it had no roof. But in 1962, a roof was built, making it indoors and convenient for tthe tanabata festival.
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Inside Asagaya Pearl Center during Tanabata Matsuri in early Aug.
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The tanabata decorations were quite impressive.
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The Asagaya Tanabata Festival is characterized by these giant characters hanging above, making it pretty unique.
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The festival attracts a huge crowd, and the decorations have much improved since the last time I saw this years ago.
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The festival is said to have originated from a Star Festival in China. According to Chinese legend, east of the Milky Way there was a Heavenly King whose daughter worked as a weaver. However, when she married a herdsman, she quit weaving.
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This angered her father who banished the herdsman to the other side of the Milky Way. He allowed the two to meet only once a year on the evening of the seventh day of the seventh month (according to the lunar calendar).
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The weaver is represented by the Vega star and the herdsman by the Altair star. As a prayer to produce better arts and crafts, the Imperial Court and the warrior class paid homage to these two stars from ancient times. This practice spread to the masses.
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Asagaya Tanabata is unique to have the year's popular characters and themes among the decorations. Moomin
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Flatfish
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Asagaya Tanabata Matsuri
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Asagaya Tanabata Matsuri, Tokyo
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Space shuttle was included because of Wakata Koichi who stayed in space for a few months in 2009.
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Pikachu
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Anpan Man
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At the end of the arcade, there is an outdoor shopping mall going to the main road.
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Umbrellas
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