Ahhh...yes, the equivalent of "Teen Beat" in Japan, "Myojo"（明星）also has their Xmas issues. Kinda wonder what the magazine looks like now.
As with any town or city in many parts of the world, there is plenty of Christmas illumination and other decorations adorning the streets. One place that I've enjoyed viewing is actually a little north of us here. It's called Unionville and during the Holidays, it gussies itself up into basically the ideal Christmas town as you can see from the video by Intuitive Imprints. Heck, watching this, I wouldn't mind pulling up stakes and moving over to the community myself although I think realistically one would need a car to get around.
Coincidentally, singer-actress Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）was singing about the same thing basically when she recorded "Christmas Avenue". It is a track on her August 1985 2nd album "Yume Juuwa"（夢十話...10 Dreams） and I've already written about the album that I have on audiotape but at the time, "Christmas Avenue" wasn't up on YouTube apparently. Well, it's up here now and this time around, this whimsical J-Xmas number has nothing to do with partying or romantic wonders/breakups, it's just about Hiroko enjoying that pleasant walk down the (Unionville) street around the Holidays. Can't be beat.
Written by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, composed by Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）and arranged by Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）, "Christmas Avenue" is a pop song that has that hint of old-style variety show jazz standard within it. I could imagine if Hiroko had ever performed this on TV or stage, she would have been accompanied by a bunch of dancing folks in candy cane or penguin suits.
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