Tokyo in December: Illuminations & New Year Traditions

Marunouchi Naka-dori, the tree-lined avenue running north-south between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace, glows with champagne-gold LEDs through the winter. The Marunouchi Illumination usually starts in mid-November and continues until mid-February, so it outlasts most of the city's Christmas lights. The avenue is about 1.2 km long and lined with designer shops and office towers.

Combine the walk with a look at Tokyo Station's red-brick Marunouchi building, which opened in 1914 and was restored to its original domed design in 2012. It is lit up at night and makes a striking backdrop. From the station, the Imperial Palace East Gardens are about 10 minutes away on foot, though they close in the late afternoon.

Every winter, the Centre Square of Yebisu Garden Place hosts a giant Baccarat crystal chandelier under its glass canopy. The display, known as Baccarat Eternal Lights, uses thousands of crystal pieces and is one of the largest chandeliers the French glassmaker has produced. It usually appears from early November until early January, alongside a decorated Christmas tree and lights along the walkways.

The complex was built on the site of the old Yebisu beer brewery, and the beer brand still runs a small brewery and tasting space on site. Ebisu itself is a quieter, more grown-up neighbourhood than Shibuya, with good izakaya and ramen shops in the streets west of the station.

Ameyoko is a market street of around 400 shops running for about 500 metres beneath the JR railway tracks between Ueno and Okachimachi stations. It grew out of a black market after the Second World War, and its name is usually linked to the sweets (ame) once sold here. For most of the year it is a lively bargain street, but in the last days of December it becomes Tokyo's busiest year-end market.

From around 28 to 31 December, families crowd in to buy food for osechi, the traditional New Year meal: crab, salmon roe, tuna, dried squid and sweet black beans. Vendors shout prices over the noise, and some knock their prices down as closing time approaches. The street also has standing bars and stalls serving skewers, sushi and hot sake, which make a cheap lunch.

Zojo-ji is the main temple of the Jodo school of Buddhism in eastern Japan and was once the family temple of the Tokugawa shoguns. Its red Sangedatsumon gate, rebuilt in 1622, is one of the oldest wooden structures in Tokyo, and Tokyo Tower rises directly behind the main hall. On New Year's Eve the temple rings its great bell for Joya no Kane, the 108 strokes that symbolise casting off the 108 worldly desires before the year turns.

The temple usually holds a countdown to midnight, and Tokyo Tower is often lit with a special display for the new year. Crowds stay for Hatsumode, the first prayer of the year, at the main hall straight after midnight. Earlier in December the grounds are calm, and the rows of small stone Jizo statues in knitted red caps make a quiet, moving sight.