I'm spending this year's Christmas with my parents in Colorado, as I've done ever since they moved here. It's all becoming familiar by now: The snow falls lightly, the neighbors put up tasteful lighting (within neighborhood guidelines, of course), and lately Santa has mercifully refrained from giving me wool sweaters with reindeer embroidered across the chest. All in all, it's a nice, pleasant affair. So pleasant, in fact, that I had an urge to dig up photos of the wackier, gaudier Christmas of my childhood in Tokyo… here's Xmas in Hachiko Square:



Now that's more like it! And here are the Christmas lights in Shinjuku, circa 2002:



Beautiful. Just beautiful.