Winter illuminations light up Japan

By DAVID PANIAN

davidp@tecumsehherald.com

When I was in Osaka, Japan, two Decembers ago, I wanted to check out some of the illumination displays and go to Nara to see the sacred deer when I wasn’t going to concerts.

Japan might not come to mind when thinking of countries that get into what we think of as Christmas decorations, since most of our traditions come from Europe. While the religious aspects of the holiday are not widely observed in Japan and Christmas Day itself is not a national holiday, many of the secular aspects of the holiday have been adopted and adapted.

One aspect that has been adopted in a big way is light displays, or illuminations. You could say some Japanese communities, businesses and public attractions have let loose their inner Clark Griswold when it comes to decorations. The timing of the displays more or less relates to winter more than Christmas or New Year’s, with some running for several weeks into the new year.

On my last full day there two years ago, I thought I could make it over to Nara to see the deer and the Great Buddha of Nara in the afternoon, then return to Osaka, do a little Christmas shopping, grab some dinner and then stroll down Midosuji, one of Osaka’s main shopping streets. I managed to get through the Christmas shopping before returning to my hotel room and dozing off. I woke up too late to do anything more than grab some takeaway food from the Family Mart convenience store across the street and then start packing to go home.

Oh, well. I figured I would just have to go back another time in the winter.

That time turned out to be about three weeks ago when there was a confluence of some performances by some Japanese musical acts that I wanted to see. Based on the schedule of the shows and allowing for meeting with some friends there, I ended up with only a couple of free evenings.

My online research led me to one free illumination and one that charged admission. There was another free one outside a shopping center not too far from my hotel in Namba, a central district in Osaka, but I just didn’t think I’d make it back there in the evening after spending the afternoon there Christmas shopping.

Now, how does someone who doesn’t speak or, maybe even more importantly, read Japanese get around or do things like order food at a restaurant? There’s definitely a lot of pointing at pictures on menus, and Google Translate has made reading signs or instructions on a vending machine a lot easier. Lots of places have English menus, and one sushi place I visited this time even had a QR code to bring up an English menu to place orders through a phone.

In big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, the announcements on the trains and subway are given in English as well as Japanese and maybe also in Chinese and Korean, particularly for trains going to and from the airports. They usually have some kind of digital signs that alternate between Japanese and English, though I got tripped up by only listening to the announcement on the subway on my way to Osaka Castle to see the illumination there and got off at the wrong stop because I didn’t pay close attention to the GPS instructions from Apple Maps. The stops were similarly named and only differentiated by the number of the district they were in. I know 1-10 in Japanese, but I had in my head that I wanted one number when I needed to wait for the next stop. That cost me about 15 minutes as I found my way out of the station and realized I was not where I thought I was and had to get back on the train if I wanted to get to Osaka Castle before they cut off admissions.

Pro tip: If you have an iPhone, you can add the Icoca or Suica transit cards to your phone and reload them with money from a card in your Apple Wallet, then you use your phone to go in and out of the subway barriers or on and off buses. You can even use that to make purchases at many stores and some vending machines. U.S. Android phones might not work the same way, but physical cards for Icoca or Suica are readily available at subway stations. Icoca is issued in the Osaka/Kyoto region (Kansai), and Suica is issued in the Tokyo region (Kanto), but they both work across Japan.

Once I got to Tanimachi 4-chome (in the announcement on the train, 4 is “yon” in both the Japanese and English versions) station, it was about a 15-minute walk to Osaka Castle, or Osaka-jo, for the Illuminage, as it is called. There was a 2,000-yen admission fee for junior high school students or older; 1,000 yen for children 1 year old or older. With the current exchange rate, 2,000 yen is about $13. Tickets can be bought in advance, but they’re available at the castle, too.

This display probably is like the Toledo Zoo’s Lights Before Christmas in scope and scale. Along with lighted representations of historical figures, such as famous samurai and people who were instrumental in the construction of Osaka-jo in the late 1500s, it has features that are popular with couples and families for selfie photos, such as the golden tunnel — a 50-foot-wide by 50-foot-long by 15-foot-tall box-like structure featuring many hanging strands of yellow lights — an orange-and-white maze and the “ice tunnel,” which is a passage brightly lit in white that leads to a view of the castle.

The castle is visible from much of the display, which also includes representations of scenes from around modern Osaka, such as takoyaki stands and the Dotonbori canal and its many lighted billboards.

Takoyaki are fried balls of dough that contain bits of octopus. They are coated in a savory sauce and topped with Kewpie mayo, chopped green onion and bonito (dried tuna) flakes. It’s delicious and was invented in Osaka. The batter is not completely cooked into dough in the best takoyaki, but the batter is really hot, like scorching-the-roof-of-your mouth hot, if you’re not careful.

The Osaka-jo Illuminage lights and music are turned off promptly at 9:30 p.m., and the exit closes at 10. An announcement is played in Japanese and English a few minutes before so you can take your last photos and start making your way to the exit before the grounds go dark and quiet.

It’s worth the price of admission, particularly to share it with someone special. It’s a really photogenic setting with the castle’s keep overlooking the park around it.

Within walking distance of my hotel was the southern end of the Midosuji Illumination. Midosuji is based on broad European boulevards like the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Over about 2.5 miles, strands of colored lights are hung in the gingko trees that line the street on both sides, with different sections of the street represented by different color combinations. Some of the buildings are illuminated, too. This year’s illumination began in April to coincide with the opening of Osaka Expo 2025 and was set to end Dec. 31, with the lights being on between 5 or 6 p.m. and 1 a.m. daily.

Of course, the businesses that stay open late are places like bars, restaurants and convenience stores, and most of them are closer to the Namba and Dotonbori districts. As I strolled north from Namba, the crowds thinned as I approached the Shinsaibashi area with its high-end clothing and jewelry shops and auto dealerships. If you like Ferraris, you can get a good look at several in the two Ferrari showrooms along Midosuji, one with cars in different colors and another with all of the cars in Ferrari Red.

While lots of the gingko leaves had fallen, many were still on the trees. Osaka’s climate is similar to the coastal Carolinas, so autumn is later there. The tiny lights shining off the golden leaves gave a magical appearance to the avenue. This, too, was a place where friends and lovers could share special time together. Since I was traveling solo, I found myself longing for one of the chocolate-coated, flat croissants I saw at a bakery near Dotonbori but passed on because I thought I needed to travel as far up the street as possible to see the different lights.

An interesting feature of the Midosuji Illumination are the My Message Tree signs. These are lighted, engraved acrylic signs that are strapped to the trees and plugged into the wiring for the lights up in the streets. Individuals or groups can buy a sign and have a message for family or friends — or even for favorite entertainers — displayed.

Do you need to go across an ocean to see elaborate holiday/winter lights? Probably not. Our local towns do an excellent job with their decorations, and if you want to see larger displays, The Toledo Zoo, Michigan International Speedway and Detroit’s Campus Martius are good options. But it’s interesting to see how one culture can take a concept from other cultures and make it its own.