Arab News Japan

TOKYO: For a non-Christian country, Japan celebrates Christmas in a spectacular fashion.

The days leading up to Christmas are known to be one of the biggest days of the year, where hotels are usually fully booked.

Cities across Japan are lit up to brighten the cool winter nights and thousands flock to downtown areas to enjoy the bright spectacle.

In Tokyo, the streets of Ginza, already dazzling with neon lights, go out of their way to add a bit more glamor to the famed shopping areas.  

Marunouchi Naka Avenue, which stretches 1.2 km from Yurakucho Station to an area west of Tokyo Station dazzles with thousands of lights in December, attracting couples and office workers to amble along the street, which is often closed to traffic.

Joining in the light show are Tokyo’s two famous towers: the venerable Tokyo Tower and the relatively new Tokyo SkyTree.  

With Tokyo having relatively few COVID-19 infections this month, it has allowed people to observe the festivedecorations and even have a few refreshments in the chill winter evenings. However, with a mounting wave of COVID-19 infections driven by the Omicron variant looming over Japan, this may be considered a “winter of discontent” for the Japanese.