Nobeoka Tanabata Festival

A Tanabata festival with over half a century of history in the Yamashita Shintengai arcade, Nobeoka's main shopping street. Shops and children from local kindergartens and nurseries fill the arcade with handmade 'mitate-zaiku' figures and colorful bamboo decorations. The mitate-zaiku—animals and popular characters cleverly fashioned from everyday goods and foods—are unique and fun just to browse, bringing smiles to visitors. During the festival the arcade is awash in festive Tanabata color, bustling with families combining it with shopping. Free to enter, it is an annual event heralding the arrival of summer in Nobeoka.