
Lonely this Christmas? Shiga Prefecture’s Pieri Moriyama shopping mall most certainly is.
Although technically still operating, the once thriving shopping centre is now home to just 14 stores after the local economy took a nosedive and businesses started pulling out in their droves. In the spirit of Christmas, however, the mall’s operators evidently decided to pop a tree up for visitors to enjoy. But as this Twitter user’s photo shows, when surrounded by naught but vast expanses of nice shiny floor, this tiny tree is possibly the loneliest Christmas ornament we’ve ever seen.
Merry Christmas, everyone?
Poor old Pieri Moriyama. It may well have become famous across the land as a “living haikyo” (creepy, abandoned ruins), but there’s no denying its maintainance staff’s skill with an industrial floor polisher.
Source: Itai News (Japanese)


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