They have added pine tress to the flower boxes along the Ginza
Category: Seen around Tokyo (Page 3 of 11)
Restaurant display
This very large gingerbread church was found in a bakery in a department store food hall.
These are Japanese sweets with a Christmas flair…melon pan reindeer anyone?
I love this classy entrance to Harry Winston’s. You may know that they loan jewelry to the stars to wear at awards ceremonies.
Although Christmas is not celebrated as a Christian holiday in Japan, it is celebrated as a commercial one. It’s all about the merchants making more money.
Often constructions sites in Tokyo have windows so that you can look in and watch the building process. This window has been converted into a Christmas display. The Santa on the right was dancing.
I love the humor I find daily in this city. There is just enough English on the signs to keep me from going crazy. I can actually read many signs and menus if they are in the simple Japanese forms of Hiragana and Katakana. Today when we were looking for a place for “lunch†We saw this “Launch Menu.â€
I love the giant paper clip on this sign for Tokyo stationary shop.
Japanese children in elementary school all wear the same type of backpacks. The color is determined by which school they attend and it is part of their school uniform. I saw these in a shop and am amazed at the price, 39,000 yen is the equivalant of $464.00! I used to make my children use their $20 JanSport backpacks for several years. They had to be falling apart and beyond repair for me to buy a new one.
Tonight we went to a small basement theater in Shinjuku to watch a musical program by a daughter of friends and her friends. Marika was obviously the most talented performer there. Almost all of the musical numbers were in Japanese. Afterwards Rick and I decided to walk around Shinjuku before returning home. We ended up at Times Square and went up to the 11th floor of Takeshimaya to see what the Yuzawaya there is like. Yuzawaya is a craft and sewing chain here in Japan. I have not recovered since they closed the 8 story store, that had everything, in Kichijoji. The store we went to is adequate, but it still does not compare. Â Â I bought two packages of wool to try felting a leaf and center for a flower I want to make from a sweater that I felted. At the entrance to Takeshimaya there was an icey sculpture of a human figure and a Christmas tree. Closer inspection revealed that they are made out of empty water bottles. They were quite fabulous…
Opera Salon
Rick received two tickets to the Opera Salon. When we arrived tonight a woman greeted me in English. She introduced herself as the wife of the man Rick received the tickets from. We were served appetizers during the first set. All the singing was in Italian except for one or two in Japanese and one number was in English. During the first set I recognized only one number, Requiem, because it’s on one of my Josh Groban CDs. After the first set there was a break and we were served our main course. The number I recognized in the second set was Edelweiss, not really opera, though. What I loved about this song was how it sounded with Japanese accents. Did I mention that all three singers were Japanese? Part of the lyrics go like this, “Blossoms of snow may you bloom and grow, bloom and grow forever…” Well, with Japanese accents it came out “bloom and glow, bloom and glow forever. It was a fun night! We need to get out more.