We here at TOKYOSAMURAI wish you all a HAPPY NEW & PROSPEROUS YEAR!

THE CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR COUNTDOWN IS NOW ON IN JAPAN AND I GUESS THE WORLD OVER. HERE IN JAPAN YOUNG  LOVERS LOOK FORWARD TO CHRISTMAS EVE AS THE FINAL MOMENT OF ROMANCE. NOT PRAYERS IN THE CHURCH! HOW DIFFERENT! WHILE JAPAN DOES NOT BOAST TO BE A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY, IT DOES CELEBRATE XMAS IN MORE THAN ONE WAY....SHOPS GALORE WITH XMAS BARGAINS. CITY CENTRES ARE ADORNED WITH GLOWING STREET ILLUMINATIONS THAT WOULD MAKE MANY A WESTERNER BLUSH GREEN WITH ENVY! 

The Marathon is a winter feature of Japanese Sports. Live on our screens is the Tokyo Women's Marathon. As usual, the Kenyan athlete is at the forefront grappling with the local challenge. Rum,our has it that one of the Kenyan athletes has come with her own family, the husband and all and of course went shopping before the event! How great the Kenyan athletes are! Well, it is a glorious Sunday with the sun shining hard on a cloud-less day. But the temperatures have dipped to 6 degrees centigrade! Mmm...feels chilly!

Japan is gearing up to the annual autumn sales with many huge outlets campaigning hard to attract customers. Looks like Thanks Giving super sales are a thing of every part of the world as the global universe grows smaller with Internet connections! Well, perhaps we should have one of our own too!

Japan is an amazing country. Halloween Nightmare celebrations are perhaps the biggest and most flamboyant in the world with a famous annual parade in Tokyo's Kawasaki city urban neighborurhood where the Japanese just go nuts with colourful Halloween costumes!

The sun is georgeous! The wind gentle. Taking a fresh air walk by the Enoshima seaside to rid of the week's hustle and bustle stresses! Sales have slowed down to my tortoise beach pace! I wonder what next! Anyone with fresh dazzling ideas!

It is an autumn tradition in Japan for school kids to take their lunch boxes to school especially when they have the Sports Day. No wonder the major household appliance outlets set aside a special location for the display of the latest bento lunch boxes. 

It is 1300 hours local time in Japan. This is the time when some of the Salary Man and the Office workers are out on a short lunch break looking for their bento lunches. In schools it is time to clean their classes after having had a collective lunch session. Mmmm.....I am getting hungry too. Time for a lunch box lunch!