If there is one thing that Japanese people love once the cold winter hits, it’s decorating with lights. Every year, cities make plans on a huge scale for amazing uses of light. These illuminations are usually free and out in popular public places for people to enjoy. Since it is usually free, everyone loves to see the lights every year.
When I was in Hiroshima, there were a lot of posters for the Hiroshima Dreamination. The scale of this illumination was huge! All along the peace boulevard were massive structures created with LED lights. In fact, 1.4 MILLION bulbs are used each year. That’s a crazy amount of lights! The theme this year was fairy tales, and they really hit the mark!
There were so many things to see and it’s hard not to be attracted to something so shiny. There were huge palaces, a ship, flowers, trees… you name it, they had an illumination on display for it. One of my favorite displays was the huge palace that you could enter into. It was like being in a fairy tale completely surrounded by glittering lights. I didn’t want to leave. Amazing! There was also one that reminded me a lot of the organ in Beauty and the Beast. It had a huge organ and dancing musical notes. I really felt like I was in a Disney movie for a second!
The entire illumination spans about 2km so you can spend a good chunk of time going through and seeing each one.There are many spots designated for taking pictures of yourself too as a memory. This is Asia, of course! 😉
Hiroshima Dreamination runs for about 48 days each year, starting in mid November to the beginning of January. It’s one of Hiroshima’s biggest winter events and is definitely worth the time. Take a streetcar to Hiroden Fukuro-machi Station and enjoy!
