Something that has really become popular in the last few years in Japan is the use of Christmas lights for decorations. You will see them on many shops, on the streets downtown, near Nagoya station and increasingly on peoples houses. If people do put them on their house they will go all out and put a LOT of lights on their house, you will never see the one or two strings of lights like we would have on our house at home in Canada.

The reason that I am telling you about Christmas lights in November is that lights are so popular that they start being put up at the start of November and stay up until February or March in some locations. This may seem long to some, but is it? What are the customs of putting up Christmas lights like where you come from?

With the global changes in weather this brings about an interesting fact, Christmas lights are being put up before the leaves change their Autumn colors. Below is a picture I took today of the yearly spectacle of lights that decorate Nagoya Station. This year they were lit up on November 7th. I haven't even heard yet when the Autumn leaves are expected to change color. In a country where the seasons are very clearly defined it is becoming less clear as to which season we are actually in.