My favorite place to visit in Japan for Christmas!

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 It's Christmas Eve!

The Japanese love celebrations and Christmas is one of our favorites. It's really nice to go for Christmas dates or department stores, and illuminations in the city but I have something different today. 

I want to introduce my favorite spot I visited for Christmas in Japan, it's in Biei, Hokkaido!


Christmas Tree in Biei Town

The spruce tree is in the middle of nowhere in Biei Town, Hokkaido. It's called the "Tree of the Christmas tree." It was called this name as the shape resembles a Christmas fir tree, and the top of the branch looked like a star.

When I had a day off for Christmas, I checked the weather and it was going to be sunny. I woke up early to drive to Biei.


Even if I have the air conditioning on, it's chilly inside the car. I believe the temperature was about -12 degrees that day.

I would stop by for a cup of coffee at Seven Eleven, or take a picture like the above and it's so quiet. You can only hear the wind, but sometimes the wind doesn't blow and it's an unbelievably tranquil phenomenon to be there.

I watched the colors change when the sun was rising, and it was just out of the world. I can't really tell how beautiful it is through a camera lens.


My Favorite "the most beautiful villages in Japan" 

Biei town is one of the towns registered as "the most beautiful villages in Japan." 

It has stunning views everywhere in the town, and it shows different faces of shunkashuutou, 春夏秋冬 which means, spring, summer, autumn, and winter.



I also stopped by Shirahige Falls

Hokkaido is famous for Mt. Yotei which is called "Ezo Fuji"蝦夷富士. Ezo is our old name for Hokkaido. While Yotei is one mountain, like Mt. Fuji, you can see Tokachi mountain range 十勝連峰 in Biei and Furano.

With Tokachi mountain range as a background, Shirahige falls is another stunning waterfall in Biei. It's a wide waterfall while it's so cold that a lot of it is frozen.


I talked to a lot of travelers in Hokkaido, and people tell me the landscape of Hokkaido is somewhere very special in Japan.

It's ripping cold, and even a waterfall freezes!! 

When you visit this area, be sure to wear layers of heat tech, extra fleece, snow jacket, and cover your head, neck, wrist, and ankle well!! 

Merry Christmas!!

I have many memories of Christmas, but my visit to Biei is my favorite. 
The experience lingered towards the end of the year, looking back on the year, and slowly preparing myself for a new year resolution to write.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!
Image by Unsplash


Follow Ryu Aomi for more to come :) 

In this blog, I post my food trips worldwide, as insights into Japanese food in comparison to all the different cuisines I encounter through my journey. 

I also try to share information from Japan that fills our hearts or might help us think about how to better the world!

Here are the SNS channels I have, but I mainly focus on Twitter at the moment. I share my past car trip around mainly Hokkaido, and how it was living there!

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