A few people have asked me if they celebrate Christmas in Japan.

You will see holiday decorations in many places in Tokyo, but it is definitely celebrated more in the commercial way. The decorations are used to bring people in or make them feel at home than they are to actually celebrate Christmas.

One of my first views of Christmas decorations was at the New Otani Hotel. This was where the Limousine Bus dropped me off from the airport. You can see the bus on the way out of the parking lot in the picture.

When you have a large International hotel, you definitely want to have a nice Christmas display for your guests.

The hotel I was staying at was much smaller, but it even had a Christmas tree and lights in the atrium.

The main street that my hotel was on also had light wrapped trees that gave everything a festive look. Of course the streets were also lined with many well lit shops and colorful signs.

The restaurant where we had Another Course Dinner also had a Christmas tree.

I did see one store where you could buy religious items for Christmas. Here is a window display with Nativity sets. Looking in you could see many more Christmas items as well as shelves of books. My assumption is that this is a Christian book store that was also selling Christmas decorations because of the season.

So, you can see that there are many signs of Christmas in Tokyo in December.

Steven