I thought I had been zapped back to the Kentucky Horse Park, and their annual Christmas light display, when I first saw this. The picture was taken from the southern plaza in Shinjiku. We had gone there to visit a Christian book store and got this beautiful "light' surprise.

This was like walking through a winter wonderland.

How would you like to go Christmas shopping in this crowd? It's like this all the time! Just down the street is the Shibuya train station; where an estimated 4 million people pass through each day. At the crosswalk in this picture, over one million people cross the street daily.


It's beginning to look like Christmas when you see Colonel Sanders dressed as Santa. (Although you can tell by the date how long they have been advertising the holiday.) KFC is their choice of meat for their holiday meal. Each restaurant has a designated counter to place orders for a roasted chicken at a cost of $50.00. December 25 is just another working day in Japan. Their holiday centers around the Emperor's birthday which in on December 23; not the birth of Christ.

Another surprise for me was seeing poinsettias in Japan. Most of them have been reasonably priced.

Christmas is strictly a commercial holiday here. You will hear Christmas carols being played in the department stores, but for the Japanese they are just songs that go along with the decorations.

We've been told that the decorating for Christmas began after WWII, and especially since the 1960's. The commercialism of Christmas has grown every year since.