Over one hundred jauntily clad figures line the street where the Koto Ward Office once stood.
Ever since the ward office moved to more spacious quarters elsewhere, the local merchants association has worked hard to keep pedestrian traffic heavy along this venerable shopping street. The autumn harvest campaign actually started last spring, when they lined the street with containers holding rice seedlings.
Throughout the summer, shoppers have delighted in watching the plants grow. They're now about 60 cm high, and when the heavily laden stalks wave in the breeze, locals feel as proud as a farmer in Yamagata surveying his rice paddies.