Christmas in Japan

Japan takes christmas decorating pretty seriously. Lots of cities and sections of Tokyo have huge light displays (called 'illumination' here), usually sponsored by some company/corporation/government.

I got the chance to see the "Starlight Pageant" in Sendai in Miyagi prefecture on a trip I had to take. About 20 city blocks are filled with all sorts of Christmas lights and a truck playing Christmas music driven by Santa makes the rounds. At exactly 6pm, every light (700,000 of them) switches off simultaneously for "Starlight Twinkle" and they come back on after one minute for the rest of the night.

Here's a collection of photos and videos from the evening. Click on the photos to see larger versions!