Who says that the Japanese don't know the reason for the season?

We received this advertisement from Antenor, a Japanese (but French-wanna-be) sweet shop who knows that the true meaning of Christmas centers around "any of numerous trees or shrubs of the genus Ilex, usually having bright red berries and glossy evergreen leaves with spiny margins."

And at more than $20 for a tiny cake less than 5" in diameter, their idea of Christmas sure isn't cheap.

One possible source of the high cost is, looking at the decorations, they seem to have splurged for [...]

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I don't think anyone would call it the "blizzard of '05" but the other day Kyoto certainly did get more snow than normal. It tended to come in heavily, and then be bright and crisp, and repeat. Here are two shots I happened to take an hour and a half apart, of the main gate of the Heian Shrine, as seen from my veranda:

1:20pm 2:55pm
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I'd had the impression that Kyoto didn't get much snow, but we got a few inches yesterday and quite a bit more today. Fumie's mom said that she doesn't remember this much snow in Kyoto since when she was a kid.

When I brought Anthony to playcare, I had only my cell phone camera, but snapped a few pictures.

 

 

Arriving at playcare Wow, there's a lot of snow!

 

 

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By now it's all melted, but our area of Kyoto got its first real snow accumulation of the season this past weekend. We got a few flakes earlier in the month, but today we got about an inch or two (while it looks like the northern part of the city got quite a bit more).

 

View of the garden below my livingroom window after our first snow accumulation this season Before One hour (and four-year-old twins) later

 

Anthony certainly enjoyed the snow

 

Two views of the same area, eight months apart although from somewhat different [...]
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Every year, Rohm Corporation puts on an "Illumination" display -- lots of holiday lights -- at their corporate headquarters in Kyoto near the Jusco Diamond City. It's really quite nice.

 

 

 

 

It continues through Christmas night.

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