It's that time of year again

When the sun sets at 4:30pm in Tokyo, but they make up for it by going all out in Christmas decorations and illuminations despite Christmas technically being only a holiday for couples in Japan.

Recently Yukina and I have been exploring various Christmas Markets around Tokyo. Having been to a real one in Germany, Yukina is a lot more knowledgeable about this stuff than I am. She knows what food is authentic, what isn't, and what we should order. (Spoiler alert most of it isn't authentic).

KFC Christmas Restaurant??

This past weekend I went to see Zootopia 2 in Roppongi. (Good movie but obviously aimed towards kids) On the way to the theater I passed by a KFC Christmas restaurant. Yes you read that right. The first ever, one of a kind, KFC Christmas restaurant made its appearance in Tokyo, but only for 5 days. December 2nd to 7th. This had to be one of the most random pop up stores I had ever seen, but of course I had to go to it. My personal theory for why this even exists is they are trying to boost chicken sales for Christmas.

In case you didn't know, back when KFC was first entering the market, thanks to some extremely clever marketing ( we could maybe even call it a psyop) they convinced the Japanese that they should all eat KFC for Christmas. Turkey isn't too common here and up until then Christmas cakes were the only thing people really ate for Christmas. So they managed to convince everyone to add some chicken to their Christmas cake dinner and it worked ever since. I have also fallen prey to this psyop as I too order it every year.

Checking out the restaurant

Because lines were out the wazoo during night time, Yukina and I planned to go on the last day it was open, during lunch. Even then there was a decent line, but we got in after about 30 minutes. The food was actually pretty good. I got this creamy grilled chicken with shrimp inside and Yukina got a spaghetti with grilled chicken. We also shared a chicken salad. Here are some photos.

I look way too happy to be eating this.

Dessert was a biscuit with ice cream. This was super tasty as well.

And of course we couldn't leave without getting a photo with the man himself.

Illuminations at night

Also in the same area as the KFC restaurant, the lights are very beautifully lit up around Roppongi. After checking out the Christmas Market in the area, we sat around at a nearby Starbucks drinking hot chocolate and watching all the people and cars go by. It seemed like a lot of Japanese people were in the spirit of Christmas this year as we saw at least 2 different cars fully decked out in Christmas lights and playing Christmas music while driving around. I've been in Tokyo for 2 years and never saw something like this until that day.

There were also of course crowds of people trying to get the perfect shot of Tokyo Tower in between the lights. You can see my photo at the top of this post. Even without the tower in the photo, it is very pretty around this area. I tried looking through all three of the photos I took to see if I could avoid showing a luxury brand but it was impossible. Each photo has at least one. Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Rolex. Maybe that gives you sort of an idea about what kind of area this place is.

That night they were also holding a special Christmas observatory event at the Mori Art Museum so we went and checked it out. I got a pretty nice shot of the Tokyo skyline.

What's the Christmas event you ask? A single Christmas tree.

Onto 2026

Christmas is by far my favorite time of year in Tokyo. (I hate summer so much man). Sadly this year I am actually working night shift on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but at least I'll have time to do something during the evening from 5 to 9pm or so. Even if I didn't have night shift I'd still be working anyway, as Christmas is not a national holiday like it is in America, so everyone still comes to work. (Remember, I said it's a couples holiday). In exchange, Japan takes New Years super serious so most Japanese workers, myself included, get over a week off from work. Stay tuned for more blogs throughout the holidays.

You might be wondering why I didn't post about the Christmas Markets even though we went to them. Truth is, these ones that we went to were quite small. There is a way larger Christmas Market Yukina and I have been going to every year (It was also our very first date spot) and we plan to go this year as well. If you guys are interested in seeing it, leave a comment below.