It's that time of the year.
The temperature drops, Halloween is long gone and Christmas becomes a reality through seasonal drinks, lounge carols at Starbucks and twinkling stars around the city. Since you may be visiting Tokyo in November or just wondering how does Christmas look like around here, we would like to share what we managed to capture through the weekend.
First things first. Coffee. Let's start with a venti americano from my favorite spot in Pedi Shiodome to warm up the body to face the chilly evening air!
1. Shiodome Caretta Illumination
Ironically located a stone's throw from my office, the illumination of Caretta Building includes all the elements that count on competition to be number one in town: LED lights, projection mapping & interactive story. Everyday, every 20 min, 17:00-22:30. See more information here
The trees are just the prelude of the actual action, which is projected over Caretta Building.
Yeeeey! Fishes! People! Stars! Xmas!
To get here, just take a train (JR Yamanote, Ginza Metro or even Yurikamome) to Shimbashi station. You can start here and then walk all the way to Roppongi, for our next stop.
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In the way between Shiodome and Roppongi, you may pass through Italia Gai「イタリア街」. Which happens to be the square facing my office. It is called like this because "it looks as if you were in Italy". It has a nice illumination and a lot of delicious italian restaurants (as you can see spotted in the map), that you may be interested in trying, after an overload of local specialities.
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Very Italian, right? ;)
Even houses have these pretty lights.
The amount of Italian restaurants is so overwhelming that they decided to arrange a weekend to celebrate pizza. Outdoor oven, tables and a party of food, in the pre-Christmas chill.
2. Tokyo Midtown 「東京ミッドタウン」
Roppongi is a really confusing area, I know. So if you stand in the Roppongi Crossing, where Gaien Higashi Dori crosses Roppongi Dori 「六本木交差点」 and walk North through Gain Higashi Dori, you will come to Tokyo Midtown「MAP」. If you walk West through Roppongi Dori, you will come to Roppongi Hills 「MAP」.
Let's walk to the North first and check out Tokyo Midtown. I really like the structures, the decorations inside and around the mall.
Sparkle overload.
Trees, old style.
Last but not least, the big bang. Because the park beside the building is where the action is. Ironically paid by Emirates, November 14th to December 25th, you can visit the show that includes 280.000 LEDs, music and usually a bunch of people, specially in the weekend [LINK]
The park nearby is also covered in light.
3. Roppongi Hills 「六本木ヒルズ」
The tree beside the spider, with the Tokyo Tower in the background. May not be the most impressive, but is certainly effective on capturing the spirit.
Roppongi Hills is just on top of the entrance to Hibiya Line, a very convenient way to get to our last stop (my hood): Ebisu.
4. Yebisu Garden Place
From November 2nd to December 25th it is possible to see a huge Chandelier [LINK] made with 8.472 pieces of Baccarat glass in front of the Joël Robuchon Castle.
To get there, the best is to use the Sky Walk from JR Ebisu station (basically, as you come out of Hibiya Line, take the direction to JR Ebisu, then stairs up and follow the signs of skywalk to Yebisu Garden Place 「MAP」.
It's very close to our home, but we hardly ever go there :P only when I happen to be interested on some item from BCGB Max Azria, that has a flagship in the lower floor. Still, there are various restaurants to explore, from the hyped Joel Robouchon (that's *** Michelin) to very basic & popular izakaya. Take a stroll around the backstreets that run parallel to the train tracks, you will be surprised.
The tree.
The walk down to the chandelier, seems empty but there were huge groups of wedding party guests taking the opportunity for a shot in their best attire in front of the illuminated trees.
The Chandelier.
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