Dec 22, 2020 (ucanews.com) - There is nothing like Christmas in the Land of the Rising Sun to unleash a collective frenzy of romance.
What makes Christmas in Japan so unique? Faith has no place in it.
Being a secular holiday is not only a time for the usual shopping spree but also a special day for couples to go on a date. A dinner at a luxury French restaurant will be followed by a walk through the “illumination†sites, which are spectacular Christmas lights. They call them the kurisumasu irumineshon, and often in the background, a famous jingle is the Koibito ga Santa kurousu (My lover is Santa Claus).
These spots become the set of real tourist pilgrimages — even in times of pandemic — in search of the most beautiful or most extravagant arrangement. It doesn't take a lot of effort to spot them as they are scattered everywhere through the urban landscape, especially near the hundreds of train stations that are the dynamic centers of a metropolis like Tokyo.
After the “illumination walk,†the couple will most likely spend the night in a way-in-advance-reserved hotel room.
There are evenings expressly organized for the notoriously large number of singles who, on the night of Christmas Eve, find themselves without a partner. The Christmas konkatsu goes even one step further as the participants engage in rationally organized parties for the express purpose to find a potential marriage partner. And anyone looking for a soulmate better reserve a seat weeks ahead as they tend to get filled pretty quickly.
