Merry Christmas

Er, for this post I did a little bit of research in Yokohama if there is a large enough Christmas tree that I could show off … I cannot find any. Yeah, there are lots home-sized trees in shopping malls, but nothing spectacular as we can encounter in some other Euro-American world. The cultural difference, in the end.

A tree

This one was the largest I found,
and it was only a half tree.

Christmas wreaths made of something
from forest are popular, though
… They are functionally similar to
Japanese traditional decorations
for New Year (like these).

2016 Christmas “tree” in Nissan Global HDQ
… it’s not organic for sure.

The other day, I found a tree at the entrance of Ikebuchi Open Space of Niiharu which has an ideal size to be a Christmas tree. I just muttered “This tree is perfect for a Christmas tree ...” Then, come to think of it, my seniors of Lovers of Niiharu almost in unison laughed and replied, “Don’t be silly.” Oh yeah. The cultural difference, honestly.

… well, actually,
this one is stressed with yellowing leaves.
Yeah, using it for decoration is a silly thing.
We need to nurse it.

Anyway, I wish you a merry Christmas!

p.s. Granted it’s not only for Christmas, but,
for Japanese festive cakes should be like these:
sponges sandwiching thick whipped cream
and fresh strawberries (in perfect shape, of course).
Certainly, these days we can easily find in Yokohama
buche de noel, stollen, panettone, Christmas puddings, etc.
But for a proper Japanese Christmas feast,
these strawberries are the MUST.
There are several theories about our love for this cake.
I support one of the explanations:
the ubiquitous Fujiya Café, established in Yokohama in 1910,
pushed their addictively sweet version of such cake
for unsuspecting Japanese Christmas nationwide.
Anyway, this photo was taken
in Foundry for Sogo Yokohama. :)