Merii kurisumasu!

Dear friends,

long time no read! I am finally on holiday and one of the first things I am thinking about is updating my blog. ;) First, I would like to thank each one of you - I have received wonderful comments and I am genuinely surprised and delighted as to who is actually reading this. You have been giving me a lot of motivation to keep it going and to make sure you enjoy it as much as I do. Thank you!

So what was going on this month? As always - a lot... This is only the first part of my December adventures. Let's dive into the world of Japanese Christmas illuminations, markets and celebrations.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

At this time of year, Tokyo beams and shines wherever you go. As rapidly as autumn turned to winter, the landscape changed and now every street, shop, mall and square is trying their best to impress passersby. Here are some highlights of the Christmas illuminations:

Ikebukuro

Sunshine City Ikebukuro

More Shinjuku

Next to Hibiya station

Harajuku

Somewhere between Hibiya and Ginza

Ginza

The Sunshine city mall in Ikebukuro even had a special show:

Feeling like at home

Because Japanese love to celebrate and especially seem like German culture, there were a lot of Christmas markets to find around the city. The first one I visited was the Aoyama Christmas Market in Shibuya. 

German sweets come in tiny, expensive amounts here

Although it was rather small and not really impressive, you could find hot wine and delicious vegan hot dogs here:

 

Real dogs were present as well - in fact, you could even adopt one. It seemed like the animal shelter took the opportunity to find homes for their inhabitants.

Another market I heard was worth visiting was the one in Roppongi hills. Takara and I went there when I promised to introduce him to German food. Before visiting the market, however, we first went to a German restaurant called Bernds Bar. 

Now this was a true culture shock for me. Not only were we greeted in German when we entered (note that it was a visitor, not the waiter), the menu was also in German (with doubtly helpful meal names in katakana). German radio was playing from the speakers, and the interior resembled a Kneipe (German bar/pub) just too much. Should I mention the food was very authentic as well?

Green asparagus cream spaghetti

White sausages with potatoes, sauerkraut and mustard

Also, I may have turned this Japanese guy into a beer lover... oops

We were equally impressed by the Roppongi Hills Christmas Market. It offered so many cute souvenirs and sweets, plus it was the first time for Takara to try hot wine ;) Although it was all under a roof, I was still happy to finally have found something resembling an authentic Christmas market. Because my phone died at this time, the photo credit goes to Takara - thank you!

Dashing through the snow...

That's how I like my Glühwein

Gingerbread and cinnamon star *-*

The illuminations around Roppongi and in Ebisu were definitely worth seeing as well. Especially the big chandelier they are displaying not far from Ebisu station.

 

There is a small French Christmas market as well - too bad it was closed when we arrived

The chandelier in front of a Christmas background

Also make sure to check out this cool video Takara has made on our expedition to German culture! ;)

But the biggest and most important of them all was the Tokyo Christmas Market in Hibiya park, where I went with Tharshi. You can probably quickly recognize why. Thanks to Tharshi for providing some of the photos!

Even a Russian place - oh dear...

The booth is called "Dress of the cakes". Artistic, isn't it?

This pyramid was imported directly from Dresden

We don't even have such elaborate decorations in Germany

Wait, isn't it all a Doitsu (Germany) center?

It sure gave you the genuine German Weihnachtsmarkt feeling - with yummy food (although significantly more expensive), hot wine, cute decorations and souvenirs, and even live performances (which we don't have in Germany).

"Bavarian potato"

Ho ho ho!

This evening was made perfect by our visit to a cinema nearby to see "Fantastic beasts and where to find them" (in English, of course). The cinema in Hibiya impressed me by offering free warm blankets for the visitors, and you could buy chocolate cake. In a cinema! By the way, the movie was good as well. ;) It is interesting how almost every cinema in Tokyo offers major movies in the original version. As a foreigner, you sure have less trouble finding something to watch as, for example, in Germany.

Merii kurisumasu!

Last but not least - a merry (belated) Christmas! Or, as Japanese say, merii kurisumasu. The Japanese traditionally go to KFC on these days (apparently after imitating American soldiers who got homesick during the holidays) and use it as couple time rather than meeting the whole family (as they do on New Year's eve, but more on that in one of the next posts). 

The organisations around Keio held their own Christmas parties. The one I went to together with Tharshi was hosted by Keio Welcome Net and was also for social workers from Japan and around the globe (as far as I understood from the Japanese speeches at the beginning). And we had to wear these stylish things (again, the photo credit here goes to Tharshi - looks like this post is a collaborative work after all):

Because a namecard is not enough

Does anyone know what it says?

The party already promised to be totally different from what I expected. Sitting at a table with a fixed seat number we all got beforehand, I got to talk to drunk Japanese workers, which can be very funny. As soon as everyone was mellow and full from the buffet, each one of the international participants had to come to the front and hold a speech - in Japanese or English. Although we had only two minutes, it was still awkward enough because we had to go unprepared. However, the atmosphere got relaxed when Akeboshi-san - the lively old man organising the whole thing - encouraged some of the speakers to sing a song in their native language. This is why we got to sing German and Indian songs as well. And in the end, everyone joined in dancing a traditional Japanese dance (which was more like a train line dance in our very own, creative interpretation). 

Buffet consisting of delicious food from Eastern Europe, Sri Lanka, Thailand and other countries

Japanese Santa raffling off presents - and he even got one himself!

When the 24th came, Alizée and I (because everyone else either went home or was busy doing something else) spent the evening in a relaxed way: Going out to eat at our favourite okonomiyaki place and drink in a British pub not far away from our dorm.

Cocktails, fried spaghetti (it tasted like salt stick without the salt) and churros

On 25th, the plan was to watch a lot of Christmas movies in the dorm lounge. We were well equipped.

We had matcha pancakes, cute cookies, clementines, kitkat, berry tea and hot wime *-*

Alizée enjoying the tea

However, it turned out not to be the best idea to do this on Christmas day, as everyone seemed to need wifi badly. So it was working very poorly and we only managed to finish the movies in our room. But nevertheless, we had a good and delicious time ;) And I even could unwrap adorable presents:

Santa hat and super-soft scarf from Alizée, and a cute Finnish purse with sweets from Essi (who went home for Christmas)

I hope you had a harmonious and fun Christmas with your loved ones. Happy holidays and sope to see you soon!