Japan has really caught on to the most sparkly aspects of holidays. Most major areas seem to end up with some sort of light displays, twinkling away in a non-denominational Santa-if-anything-centered way. I have to agree that there’s something very alluring about the cheer and friendliness of Christmas. (Apart from the Black Friday sales, that is.) They even get into the music, although in true Japanese style, most of what you hear is sanitized elevator music versions of everything. And everywhere has ads for Christmas Cake and Christmas Fried Chicken. Both of which Japanese are completely unaware are actually entirely Japanese customs.
My favorite decorations I’ve seen so far are these little white abstract tree light things. The color comes from the light reflecting off of the bottom of the rings, which have been cleverly colored by children with markers. I’d like one as a way to make my room feel a little bit more festive, but sadly they were only available to decorate if you were willing to give them to the general decor of the shopping center.
Hopefully I’ll get to go to a few other places and take pictures of the decorations before I head back to the US. Fukuoka will have some nice ones around Canal City and Tenjin, I bet. And then hopefully I’ll be able to take a pile of pictures of Disney Christmas decorations. We don’t really take pictures of Disney much anymore, in my family. It was our usual vacation place when I was a kid (not so hard when it’s less than an hour and a half away), and so we’ve all gotten so accustomed to it we don’t even think to take pictures. But I feel that I may as well try this time around. I don’t go nearly as often as I used to. This is definitely one of the bigger downsides of no longer being in Tampa.