The calendar shows we’re nearing the end of January and that’s exactly why you’d think that all holiday illuminations have been switched off for the year. But in Japan it’s not over yet. In some recent articles we were hunting for holiday lights in Tokyo, this time let’s go a bit further up north to the rural Ashikaga City, about 100 km away from the Japanese capital.

What’s famous about Ashikaga? The Ashikaga Flower Park of course! Here every year in freezing cold weather from November through January people come to enjoy some very impressive illuminations.

If you’re heading there by train from Tokyo, the cheapest and quickest way is to take the Utsunomiya line from Ueno to Oyama, then Ryomo line to Tomita station that’s one stop before Ashikaga. Altogether it will take about an hour and a half. From Tomita it’s only about 800 meters to the flower park which according to Japanese calculations translates to 10 minutes of walk (Japanese scientists have found that 80 meters means 1 minute of walk and that is the standard for measuring walking distance here).

The miniature Tomita station doesn't really give impression there's anything special in this town.

Botanists will be happy that the park is very famous for its wisterias. There are about 160 of them here which are over 60 years old and one reached a respectable age of 100 years. Sellers of fertilizers will be disappointed by the fact that the park buried 260 tonnes of charcoal for composting the soil and purifying the air in an eco-friendly manner.

Now, let’s move on to the illumination masterpieces.

Happy New Year 2010 indeed!

Ponds can look something like this, too.

Modern Venice.

Don’t forget to check our more pictures in our gallery:

Gallery: Ashikaga Flower Park Illuminations
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New Year celebrations are over and we can move on! How did it turn out here in Japan? Like every year, most people wait for midnight usually in temples, some stay home and some celebrate somewhere outdoors. We decided to go to Nishiarai Daishi temple which is one of the three main Daishi temples in Tokyo area.

What does it look like when you visit a big Japanese temple on New Year Eve? Crowd, crowd, crowd! People are packed like sardines in a can, yet still somehow they make sure they don’t walk you over. You just might think you found yourself in the middle of some peaceful mass protest. Around the temple grounds you can find booths with all kinds of traditional New Year food. Here and there you might come across a Turk selling kebab and slicing the meat with a respectably sized knife while yelling out irasshaimase, irasshaimase (“welcome”) in perfectly sounding Japanese. You might even see a fortune teller waiting for customers inside a tent. Most everyone seems to ignore them, though.

Crowded grounds at Nishiarai Daishi temple.

Most people visit a temple with intent to pray for their wishes. Their prayer is not meant for some specific god or deity but it depends on each person and you can wish for anything you want. Outside the temple you’ll see a long line of people waiting to make their first wishes in the new year as they pass the time chatting and typing on cell phones. Because there are too many of them, teams of security guards let them enter the temple in large groups, one at a time. We waited there for about 30 minutes.

Hordes of people on the stairs to the temple, some rolling upstairs, some downstairs.

A maze of booths.

Darumas for sale! Daruma is a traditional Japanese New Year symbol. They come in various sizes, anywhere from 1 cm to 1 meter and maybe even more.

A nearby street that leads to the temple had shops and restaurants open all night.

Earlier we checked out the glitzy chandelier in Ebisu, now let’s take a train ride a few minutes further to Shinjuku. After working our way through the crowd in Shinjuku Station, the world’s busiest rail station that transports something 4 million passengers per day, we exit through the Southern Terrace Exit and step on a long terrace that’s been decorated with sparkling white and blue lights for the holidays. The illumination is called Shinjuku Southern Lights.

Our teeth are chattering in the freezing cold wind, but we keep on walking and ignore the warmth that’s radiating from the Starbucks on the left.

Penguin is a mascot of the Suica rail pass that's issued by JR East.

We’re still rolling around Tokyo and looking for holiday illuminations. Around this time in Yebisu Garden Place in Ebisu (until January 11, 2010) you can enjoy Baccarat Eternal Lights where you will see a respectable 5 meters tall and 3 meters wide crystal chandelier, handcrafted by the famous French glassware manufacturer Baccarat. This upper-class chandelier that won’t fit in your room is composed of 8,472 crystal pieces and 250 light bulbs.

Taking the escalator through the Ebisu station, you'll see signs for the chandelier.

The path to the holy object in the central square is lined with illuminated trees.

The chandelier is of course protected by glass, so nobody would accidentally climb on it.

Finest detail!

On the opposite side of the chandelier, there's a chateau restaurant Taillvent-Robuchon.

The thermometer shows 7 degrees Celsius, cold wind is blowing down from Kamchatka, but that won’t prevent us from continuing our holiday crusade around illuminated Tokyo. Tokyo Dome City in Suidobashi is a large complex of shops, restaurants, an amusement park and a domed stadium where they put some serious effort into making the place look as fancy as possible for the holidays.

The lights are scattered all around but just on the right places to make the scene look fantastic without overdoing it.

Even Johnny Depp the pirate would be delighted by a lustrous ship like this one.

Whoever did this wasn't lacking creativity!

A brave Ultraman posing for photos.

Let's go up the stairs and we'll see an intimidating view of a giant ferris wheel. A little further through the entrance to LaQua we can find a good selection of shops and restaurants.

A quick glance to the left and we'll see a long line of people who just finished attending a concert by Mr. Children, a band that performed in Tokyo Dome tonight.

Let's follow the crowd through a hypnotic tunnel of changing colors.

A UFO has landed somewhere near Starbucks, just in time for the holidays.

Under the festive dome that somehow reminds on a Byzantine basilica, we can sit down, watch big screen TV and chat a little.

Yet another space ship, parked in front of the ice cream shop Baskin & Robbins.

As we break through the 30 minutes long line for women's restroom, we go back through the tunnel that just changed into shades of blue and green.

We reach Depp's ship again.

A view of the domed stadium from the bridge in front of Tokyo Dome Hotel.

Time to go back home as the lights will shut off at midnight.

Nearing the exit, we can't miss this altar of sparkling unicorns.