in Azabudai, Tokyo
Azabudai Hills, the newly opened apartment, shopping and office building complex, is holding its first Christmas Market from December 9th to the 25th. The market features a beautiful Christmas tree, and 17 shops and food stalls offering Christmas goods and foods. You can even buy mini Christmas trees and wreaths at the market.
My Experience
We visited on the 2nd day the market was open! It was less crowded than some of the more famous markets such as the Tokyo Christmas Market or the Roppongi Hills Christmas, probably because it isn't as well known yet. I really liked that they had a system where you take a ticket, and you can enter the main area when your number is called. I think it definitely helped to prevent overcrowding in the main area. We got to the market around 6pm, and only had to wait about 10 minutes to enter. The process was really easy and smooth, and the area is quite large, so there's room to wait and walk around before you enter.
At the entrance, there were about 8 shops lined up and cutely decorated! The stores sold Christmas ornaments, trees, and other goodies. Towards the back was a large Christmas that was beautifully draped in lights and the famous German Christmas Specialty Shop, Kathe Wohlfahrt. The line for the store was super long and it was like a 50 minute wait just to enter the store. I didn't feel like waiting in line, so we skipped that part!
Outside the Tower Plaza were around 10 food stalls, selling a variety of dishes. Some of the items had already sold out by the time we arrived and some of the lines were particularly long, such as the sausages, vegan dishes, etc. We got a chocolate donut and a rum raisen pastry, natural wine, and a chicken bagel set. Honestly the food was very good! The pastries were delicious and the chicken had great flavor. There are a few seats near the entrance behind the shops as well as standing tables in the center of the plaza, but the tables were quite full, so we just stood off to the side and ate.
The beautiful light fixtures, adorable shops, and the view of Tokyo tower in the background, I felt were the distinguishing points from other Christmas markets! It was also nice that they were selling actual Christmas trees and wreaths, since those are quite rare to see at Christmas markets in Japan. They were on the pricier side, but that's pretty normal for real Christmas trees in Japan (minus the ones from Ikea, I have no clue why those ones are so cheap!) Although there were a lot of people, I really enjoyed the spaciousness compared to the other markets, and it was a good opportunity to check out the new Azabudai Hills complex!
Official site
Address
Azabudai 1-3-1, Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0041
Date
December 9 - 25, 2023
Time
11:00 - 21:00
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