In the Aichi Prefecture area, Nabana no Sato is the largest and most famous illumination event around. I don't care so much about illumination displays- I'm more impressed by majestic mountains or glittering cityscapes- but it seemed like a "winter" thing to do, so my wife, her sister, my daughter and I drove out to see it. The first thing that struck me were the crowds. The parking lot was like what you would see at a large amusement park. After the long walk from the parking lot, we squeezed along with the crowd. The lights were impressive, and the tunnel of lights was fun, but the main illumination scene, based on "Heidi of the Alps" was so crowded that I ended up watching it on the screens of the smart phones and smart pads held in the air by the people standing in front of me. In the end, we had fun, and there were certainly a lot of lights, but my energy was drained by the crowds, and photographically speaking, I find it hard to get too excited about a photo that hundreds of other people are taking at the same time. In this case, the only "original" thing I could think to do was take photos of other people taking photos, since that was all I could see anyway.