Tokyo Illuminations, Holiday '09

When I first came to Japan, I was living in Akasaka via Temple sponsored housing, and these are some of the sites I began to see as the Christmas season approached. In fact, one of the things that surprised me most was that I felt much more of a Christmas vibe coming from Tokyo than I ever did pack home, kind of ironic considering the fact that there is a majority Christian population where I am from and in Japan the holiday is stripped of any real meaning it might have.

Not being a Christian myself, Christmas is kind of a non-event for me, and seems to be mostly be about consumerism in any case, but I do enjoy the Christmas time atmosphere. Most of the footage comes from Akasaka and especially Roppongi and Tokyo Midtown where some extravagant light displays were set up for the better part of the holiday season. In particular, one drew my attention in Tokyo Midtown that consisted of what looked like hundreds of thousands of blue lights that could turn white to create various patterns and begin to resemble a sort of starry nighttime sky in appearance. Apparently the view is much more spectacular if you actually view it from a high building in the area, and at times it is seen forming a large white spiral reminiscent of the Milky Way Galaxy. I definitely intend to see if this light display will make a return this year.