400 Colorful Koinobori Streamers Adorn Tokyo Shopping Arcade; Nakano Reeling in Visitors with Traditional Decorations

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:41 JST, April 2, 2025

About 400 koinobori carp streamers in many colors and sizes were hung inside a shopping arcade near JR Nakano Station in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, on Tuesday.

The eighth annual decoration event is organized by a local association promoting the Nakano Sunmall Shotengai arcade near the station’s north exit. The event, called Kuchu Suizokukan (midair aquarium), continues through May 6.

Carp streamers are traditional ornaments for Children’s Day, celebrated on May 5. Among the carp adorning the 224-meter arcade are 39 streamers handmade by schoolchildren and preschool children living in the ward. Some children drew things like flowers and animals on the streamers while others made handprints.

Visitors to the shopping mall had fun looking up at the streamers swaying in the wind and taking pictures of them with their smartphones.

“It’s delightful and pretty. Soothing, too. I can feel the children’s artistic sensitivities,” said an 81-year-old homemaker living in the ward.