Christmas in Shinjuku

Japan may not be a Christian country, although they have more Christian martyrs (San Lorenzo Ruiz was martyred in Nagasaki) than the Philippines, but Christmas is very much in the air in Japan, especially in Shinjuku, the major commercial and administrative center of the Tokyo Metropolitan Administration right at the heart of Tokyo.

Shinjuku is known as the busiest railway station in the world, having the JR Shinjuku Station that boasts of close to 800,000 passengers each day. It is also Tokyo’s Western rail terminal, the starting point of the Odakyu Railway services to Hakone and the famous mountain hot-spring resorts in Lake Ashi, very close to Mt. Fuji. That’s two major railway companies in the heart of Shinjuku, where department stores, restaurants and bars, camera and computer shops and many international hotels are located.

My brother Rene, sister Adela and her husband Yuki Kono and I stayed at the Hotel Century Southern Tower right at the heart of Shinjuku and had a terrific view of Tokyo from the NTT DoCoMo Tokyo Building. The Imperial Gardens or the Shinjuku-Gyoen Park and the Takashimaya Times Square were just across the hotel with the Odakyu railways between the two buildings. This was linked via a wide promenade walk above the railroad line. The backside of the hotel also gives you the view of the famous Mt. Fuji, that’s if she takes away her cloudy veil. It’s a bit blocked by the Shinjuku Mitsubishi Building and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government offices, which is just a block away from our hotel.

The Takashimaya Department Store also has Tokyo Hands, something like a hardware store and the HMV music and video store where you can find the rarest videos and music CDs that you can never find in other countries. It also has a six-storey bookshop called Kinokuniya where one floor was for English language publications. Yes, I lost a lot of money buying books that I know I can’t find back home.

Inside the Takashimaya Times Square and practically all the other establishments in Shinjuku, and I guess this goes for the rest of Japan, especially on train stations, you will see Christmas decors everywhere and their sound systems blaring away your old time favorite Christmas songs. Indeed, the Christmas spirit lives on even in Japan, although Christmas Day isn’t a holiday there. But somehow, the Japanese people have acquired the Christian tradition of giving and showing love on Christmas.

Shinjuku is a two-hour bus ride from the Narita Terminal A, which Philippine Airlines (PAL) uses for its Cebu-Narita-Cebu flights. The bus service cost ¥3,000 yen or roughly around P1,500 for one trip. Narita is 80 kilometers away from the heart of Tokyo. There are still many places to go in Shinjuku, like the Golden Gai, where small bars for musicians and actors are located or the Kabukicho district located northeast of the Shinjuku station that is literally Shinjuku’s red-light district. And the Nishi-Shinjuku where the tallest buildings in Tokyo are located. If it were not for the cold winter weather, I would have loved to go to the Shinjuku Gyoen Park, but then I’m reserving that for my return trip to Japan.