lights
Ashikaga’s Flower Park transforms into a fantastical fairytale world that you can step inside for the next few months.
Little known fact makes this Japanese neighbourhood a great place to go for a romantic date.
TeamLab’s Tea Time in the Soy Sauce Storehouse brings a whole new meaning to the term “tea light”.
Forget Area 51, the Scramble Crossing is where all the action’s at!
Bathe in the warm glow of owning something recycled, and a light bulb, with these magic cardboard lamps.
Let’s begin with a bit of linguistic trivia: How many of you know that Japanese has an expression for the area of exposed skin between the top of knee-high socks and the hemline of a skirt? No, this is not a joke, people–the actual term is 絶対領域 (zettai ryouiki), which literally means “absolute territory,” but I’m sure some of you already knew that.
If you didn’t, now is as good a time as ever to add that phrase to your mental lexicon, with LED light-emitting skirts about to enter the world of fashion and all!
Tokyo may be trying to take the throne of “City of Lights” from Paris and we’ve seen some dazzling lights in Mie Prefecture, but inKansai, nothing says holiday spirit better than “Kobe Luminarie.” The light display is entering another year of brilliance, as it was originally a display to honor the victims of the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, pray for the revival of the city, and reintroduce tourism into the region.
In an effort to save energy after the Tohoku Disaster in 2011, Kobe Luminarie changed their lightbulbs to LED lights. Smart move, right? You would think people would be happy with the economically and environmentally savvy improvement, but apparently the results were a little more sparkling than they’d hoped, in the bad way.
We appreciate that while many of you are interested in Japan and Japanese culture, not all of you are able to visit the Land of the Rising Sun quite so easily. But Christmas is a great time of year here in Tokyo, what with all the lights, decorations and hand-holding couples, so in order to share the various seasonal sights with you we took the liberty of putting together a little slideshow.
Join us after the jump for a photo tour of Tokyo’s best Christmas illuminations!
During this time of the year, a lot of cities like to bring out elaborate light decorations to warm up their otherwise ice cold streets. Whether it’s for Christmas, New Year’s or just the heck of it, as the days grow darker the streets tend to go brighter.
So what about cities that are already known for their abundance of colorful lights? Do they to amp it up even more for the end of the year? Our reporter FelixSayaka went to Hong Kongto find out, a city that is said to have one of the most stunning skylines in the world. She came back with this handy list of places you should check out if in Hong Kong during the holiday season, or if you’re just into pretty pictures.
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Studio Ghibli releases Kodama forest spirits from Princess Mononoke to light up your home
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Toyota built a life-sized Miraidon Pokémon and are letting people test drive it this weekend
This Nara workshop has been making deer crackers for more than 100 years and offers tours【Photos】
This Osaka laundromat wants to clean more than your clothes; it also wants to clean you
Is China’s don’t-go-to-Japan warning affecting tourist crowd sizes in Nara?
Senkoji: The Japanese temple that’s more like a theme park to heaven and hell
Japan’s permanent Pokémon theme park zone announces grand opening date, ticket sale start
Real-world Nausicaa Ghibli anime glider completes its final flight in Japan【Video】
One last visit to Japan’s craziest, scariest video game arcade: Warehouse Kawasaki【Photos】
Where’s the very best seat to sit in on Japan’s Shinkansen? Our expert has an answer
Studio Ghibli adds new Kiki’s Delivery Service music box to its anime merchandise shop in Japan
Our top 3 cafes in Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s newest and possibly swankiest shopping complex
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