Christmas Eve in Tokyo

Mark and I were lucky to find ourselves in Tokyo over Christmas. Mark was returning home from a TDY, so I met him down there. On our first day in Tokyo, we went to the Tokyo Sky Tree. The Sky Tree opened in May 2012, and is the world's tallest free-standing broadcasting tower.

The structure is 634 meters tall, or 2,080 feet, which is about 300 feet taller than the One World Trade Center Building in New York City. Since it was built so recently, everything was very clean and high tech. The elevators were specifically designed to represent the changing seasons, and had a digital display going through the seasons as you rode.

We had great weather; you can see Mt. Fuji in the background.

After taking in the view, we wandered around the mall-ish area connected to the Sky Tree. We ate lunch at a really good Hawaiian place, and then went to this little Christmas area. The Japanese love Christmas, or at least the secular parts of Christmas, so everywhere we went was decorated and playing festive American music. It really added to the whole trip. 

One of the Christmas Town booths had hot wine, or glühwein. Mark got his mixed with rum, and I had mine mixed with amaretto. It was absolutely delicious, and we spent the afternoon enjoying the drinks, weather, and each other's company. 

After our wine, we went back to our hotel and rested up a bit before heading to Roppongi to see the Christmas lights.

Christmas Eve in Roppongi. The Tokyo Tower is in the background.

Street view of the Christmas lights. 

Building by our hotel, also excited about the 2020 Olympics.

We rounded out the night by eating at a Chinese restaurant. Doesn't get much more 'Merican than that!