The Sendai Tanabata Festival, one of the most popular summer events in northeastern Japan, started on Tuesday.
The annual event in Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture dates back more than 400 years.
Shopping arcades are lined with some 1,500 bamboo branches decorated with colorful streamers and paper strips.
The front of a department store is adorned with 78,000 paper cranes. They were made by students in the city, wishing for recovery from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck the Tohoku region, as well as recovery from the New Year’s Day quake on the Noto Peninsula along the Sea of Japan coast.
An elementary school girl who came with her family from Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo, said she was impressed with the beautiful paper cranes.
A man in his 70s from Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan said he happened to see the festival for the first time, adding that he wants to take time to enjoy the event.
The festival runs through Thursday, and is expected to attract about 2 million people.