Posted April 7, 2014 by Jonelle Patrick Just another day in Japan

Alt Cherry

So, during cherry blossom season, people naturally flock to places with maximum pink fluffiness. But if you don’t have any real blooming cherry trees of epic proportions, how do you avoid being the location equivalent of Forever Alone? Behold the ingenuity of even the stodgiest of institutions…

If you're the mighty flagship Mitsukoshi department store, you light up the entire front of your building with pink spotlights. — If you’re the mighty flagship Mitsukoshi department store, you light up the entire front of your building with pink spotlights.

If you're Legoland, you change all the trees in your models to little square cherry trees. — If you’re Legoland, you change all the trees in your models to little square cherry trees.

If you're the Fuji Television building, you program all the windows on one side to play a lightshow of cherry trees and cherry blossoms. — If you’re the Fuji Television building, you program all the windows on one side to play a lightshow of cherry trees and cherry blossoms.

If you're Tokyo Tower, you turn from orange to pink for the duration of The Season. — If you’re Tokyo Tower, you light up pink for the duration of The Season.

And even if you're a behemoth Japanese bank, during cherry blossom season you throw a light show of rotating flowers onto your stately be-columned main branch. — And even if you’re a behemoth Japanese bank, you project a lightshow of pink flowers onto your stately be-columned main branch.

And people ask me why I love Japan. Go figure.

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Jonelle Patrick View All

Writing mystery books set in Tokyo is mostly what I do, but I also blog about the odd stuff I see every day in Japan. I'm a graduate of Stanford University and the Sendagaya Japanese Institute in Tokyo, and a member of the International Thriller Writers, the Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters In Crime. When I'm not in Tokyo, I live in San Francisco. I also host a travel site called The Tokyo Guide I Wish I'd Had, so if you're headed to Japan and want to check out the places I take my friends when they're in town, take a look!