Tokyo Midtown Hibiya

When I think of winter in Canada, I picture snow. When I think of winter in Japan, I, like many others, picture illuminations!

Illuminations are very common near the end of the year. You'll see advertisements for special areas and events on the train and online.

Today we are going to one of the many popular illumination spots in Tokyo - Tokyo Midtown Hibiya!
Tokyo Midtown Hibiya is actually a mall, so we'll be exploring that first. But make sure you stick around until the end!

Let's go over the mall itself first. The building has several floors, but only the first 7 are actually part of the mall. Floors 4 and 5 are used by Toho Cinemas. The remaining floors have various shops and restaurants.

Tokyo Midtown Hibiya is between the imperial palace and Ginza - a district known for its luxurious stores. While not as upscale as Ginza, you'll find a lot of brand stores here.
One interesting store we found was Today's Special. I was initially attracted by the holiday goods, but they have lots of household goods and even plants!

On the basement floors, they have specialty foods stores, a flower shop, and a Kaldi. I like visiting Kaldi, I think it's quite popular with foreigners and Japanese people alike! Although they technically specialize in coffee, I think they are mostly known for their imported goods.

My favourite part was the "Food Hall" on the basement floor. It's kinda like a food court but with a bunch of open concept restaurants. So the whole room is connected but each restaurant has their own section that is decorated to their aesthetic and atmosphere. We didn't eat here this time, but I definitely want to come back and try the restaurants in the future!

Now for what you've been waiting for - the illuminations! There are 3 areas in total. This is the Park View Winter Garden on floor 6. We actually came here first a little bit before the illuminations started. The view is beautiful! Just watching the sunset sky is really nice.

I think this is my favourite of the 3 areas. The path among the lights is just magical. It is like walking among the stars. It's a bit hard to see from the photos, but the tiles between the bushes are arranged in a leaf pattern.

At the end, there's a small grassy area that is covered in lights. Lines of bright lights go across like shooting stars. There's also some smoke that creates a magical mist over the lights. Christmas music was playing in the area too!

I'm glad we came here first because it was fairly empty, especially when everyone gathered by the main attraction.

Next we have Hibiya Winter Square. If you look at it from the upper floors, you can see that the trees are in a snowflake pattern! The white lights are in the trees leading up to the square. The other colour lights slowly change colour over time.

There's plenty of space to sit down and enjoy the lights!

Finally, we have the Hibiya Area Illumination. This area is really cool too! There are so many trees completely lit up by lights, it feels like walking through a magical forest! There are also some benches where you can sit.

There are tall buildings on both sides, but they don't take away from the experience. There's enough darkness that lets the lights stand out. Even the golden lights from the windows are kinda nice.