Mission: Christmas Tree in Tokyo

Wow, this was much more difficult than I initially thought it would be... So, I decided to get a real Christmas tree (for the first time in my life mind you) and decorate it. Buildings are really close together in Tokyo and there is not much space saved for gardens usually. I am lucky compared to a random Japanese though  since my apartment building is next to a school which has trees so I do see some green outside the window but I still thought adding a bit of green inside the apartment would not hurt.

The first challenge for me was finding a real Christmas tree. See even online services like Rakuten/楽天, let alone actual stores that sell Christmas accessories, overwhelmingly sell fake Christmas trees and one with a decent size is actually pretty expensive (more than 10,000 yen typically). So, what did I do? Well, as it turns out big stores like J-Mart carries real trees and not only that, they are much cheaper! I got a 150 cm-ish tree for less than 5,000 yen! Of course there was a slight problem the tree being that big and me being without a car and all. See, the public transportation is great but I doubt the bus would have let me on with the tree and the two bags of soil and the huge pot :P Thanks to 石垣さん though I did not need to try to convince a bus driver or a taxi driver ;) He very graciously offered me his car for carrying the tree which I really appreciate.

Well, two bags of soil, a bag of little rocks, a pot, and may be a little too much of Christmas decorations after this is what the little tree looks like. I am pretty happy with the end result and yes I do realize it is not a pine tree but I still like it just fine ;) I think it makes the apartment all festive and stuff and that's never a bad thing. Of course I will leave this tree around far longer than just Christmas - after all it is primarily a New Year's Tree for me ;)