Japan, Booked.Real Japan. Smarter travel.All guides

Tokyo Tower and a Shinjuku Christmas tree on a rainy day

Haruru returned to Tokyo Tower after a long interval during the Christmas season. She also happened upon the tree at Shinjuku Sumitomo Building’s Sankaku Hiroba. Rain and crowds were part of the day, along with a seafood lunch she enjoyed.

A past Christmas-season outing shared in a December 2025 post, edited with Haruru’s existing permission.

Seeing Tokyo Tower again

Tokyo Tower was Haruru’s choice for that year’s illuminations. It had been so long since her last visit that she wondered how many years had passed.

Her night photographs show the tower’s red structure with green, yellow and pink light above it. One bears her Christmas greeting; another asks how long it had been since she was last there.

Seeing Tokyo Tower again — Haruru’s photograph
Seeing Tokyo Tower again — Haruru’s photograph
Seeing Tokyo Tower again — Haruru’s photograph

Lights below the tower

The pictures below the tower keep a different scale of decoration: a small illuminated tower, stars, a moon and character figures among trees covered with coloured lights.

A Christmas market sign also appears in the photographs. Nearby decorations include hanging transparent ornaments and a circular canopy of lights above white trees.

Lights below the tower — Haruru’s photograph
Lights below the tower — Haruru’s photograph
Lights below the tower — Haruru’s photograph

An unexpected tree in Shinjuku

Haruru happened to pass through Sankaku Hiroba at Shinjuku Sumitomo Building. The large white Christmas tree there became another part of her day’s record.

A curved decoration winds around the tree, with stars and many small lights hanging high above. The wide view also shows the people gathered below it. She remembered the outing as busy, even in the rain.

An unexpected tree in Shinjuku — Haruru’s photograph
An unexpected tree in Shinjuku — Haruru’s photograph
An unexpected tree in Shinjuku — Haruru’s photograph
An unexpected tree in Shinjuku — Haruru’s photograph
An unexpected tree in Shinjuku — Haruru’s photograph
An unexpected tree in Shinjuku — Haruru’s photograph

Other winter colours in the photographs

The same record includes red, pink and white cyclamen, with her note about the variety of flowers. Other pictures keep purple flowers and leaves shaded with pale pink and white.

A Christmas tree among shelves of bottles and a transparent dome filled with colourful light drawings appear too. These smaller scenes add to the colours preserved from the outing.

Other winter colours in the photographs — Haruru’s photograph
Other winter colours in the photographs — Haruru’s photograph
Other winter colours in the photographs — Haruru’s photograph
Other winter colours in the photographs — Haruru’s photograph
Other winter colours in the photographs — Haruru’s photograph

Seafood on the grill

Lunch was a seafood buffet. Her photographs show shellfish, shrimp and squid on a grill, alongside corn, vegetables and a mound of rice.

One picture is labelled “seafood grill” and “all-you-can-eat”. Despite the rain and the number of people she encountered, Haruru remembered it as a fun day.

Seafood on the grill — Haruru’s photograph
Seafood on the grill — Haruru’s photograph
Seafood on the grill — Haruru’s photograph

Sources for this account

Edited with Haruru’s existing permission from her December 2025 note and photographs. The lights, lunch and comments about rain and crowds belong to that personal outing.