Asagaya Tanabata Festival

In the beginning of August, the area around Asagaya station holds a Tanabata festival, and this year I didn't know about it until a friend of mine messaged me about it. I thought he was messing with me at first, since he's the kind of person who likes to flex his British sarcasm. Tanabata festivals are usually held in July, not August. He sent over a video of the area as proof that he wasn't lying, triggering a visit for the next day.

This is the crosswalk closest to the station exit.

The moment we stepped out of the station, we saw extravagant decorations for the festival. The main attraction was the sheltered road that had all of the shops. As expected, the place was crowded, and we advanced at a crawling speed while navigating the human bodies around us. On each side were storefronts with stalls set up for the festival attendees, and all of the stalls had employees shouting over the crowd to draw attention to their stock of food or ornaments. The food ranged from skewers of beef, to karaage (fried chicken), to chocolate cucumbers and cold treats. Beer was being sold in plastic cups at some stalls as well.

I chose not to buy anything, and we walked through the lengthy shopping area to admire the large bamboo displays of various characters and colourful shapes with dangling streamers that reached to the ground. These displays took up most of the space overhead, and they have been the selling point of this festival since its inception in 1954. This particular Tanabata festival was created to bring people to the area to revitalize the local shopping area, much like Koenji's Awa Odori festival that would happen in the end of August. This is probably why the date differs from the other Tanabata events.

I didn't get a picture of the wall of past characters, so here's a picture of some of the larger ones from this year.

There were some unique sights along this shopping road. Characters were not only original creations, but also based off popular culture such as the Powerpuff Girls, or Disney. Some of the pieces were even animated. In particular, an Aladdin display caught our attention:

The most elaborate piece we saw though, was a set of dancing rabbits. I forget what kind of shop they were for, but they definitely stick out in memory:

Coming from the station, there was a fork in the road further down. The right-hand path had some stalls, but was relatively scant in terms of decoration compared to the path on the left. Taking the left side, we found more stalls, but less storefronts and more activities. There was a street performer that painted his skin purple to match his purple suit with a sign that called him something along the lines of "Grape Man" in Japanese. Feeding his box made him move from his statue position. There were also activities for kids, like pellet gun ranges and fishing games. Masks were also being sold in this area.

Masks available for purchase. Adults were wearing them too.

This path eventually terminated at a main road, where the shopping area officially ended. The activity here was obviously a far cry from the bustle of the main shopping area, but there were still quite a number of people hanging around, eating their festival food or just arriving. A decorated gate greeted the guests arriving at this entrance.

The lanterns together read, "Tanabata Festival."

There was a lot to see and take in, and it took us about an hour or so to go through the whole shopping road. If we had chosen to take part in some of the activities, it probably would have taken us longer, but the displays were enough to entertain us. If you aren't interested in the doing some shopping, however, the displays really are the only thinking worth coming for. So, if I do visit again, I plan on taking more pictures, as my current set does not do it justice.

Don't worry, I don't recognize these characters either.

The rest of the Asagaya area around the station actually felt like a ghost town compared to the activity that was in the festival area. We took a walk around the vicinity to try to find something to eat at a sit-down restaurant, and it seemed that most izakayas (the Japanese equivalent to pubs) were not as full as I would have expected. While we weren't interested in going in any of them, I saw that a lot of them had empty seats available. Considering the density of people in the festival area, I would have thought that some of them would spill out into the local eateries, but it seemed that most of the people settled on the stall food.

In that sense I suppose that the shopping area got the most out of the festival, and the festival's goal of getting more customers in the area was technically accomplished.

Thanks for reading!