The Cocoon City Illumination typically begins in November each year and runs until Valentine's Day, February 14th. For the first night of the illumination the event starts at 5.30 pm, but every other night after that the illumination is turned on at 5 pm. The illumination stays on until 11 pm.
Cocoon City is a very pleasant mall in Saitama city. It is a great spot for Christmas shopping and apart from the illumination they run several other festive events. The highlight of the illumination at Cocoon City is their Christmas tree which changes color periodically. They also use projection mapping that creates moving stars around the base of the tree. In addition, there are also several other displays and features at each of the three buildings of the mall. Cocoon City is located close to Saitama Shintoshin where there is also a night illumination event.
Getting there
By car: Cocoon City is open from 10 am to 9 pm, but the cinema is open until around midnight depending on what is showing in the theater. The car park stays open until 1.00 am for cinema goers. Parking costs two hundred yen for 30 minutes, but if you have a Cocoon card or if you spend more than a 1000 yen in one shop you get one hour free parking. If you use the cinema you get 3 hours free parking.
By public transport: the mall is a short walk from the Saitama Shintoshin station.
Lynda Hogan @lynda.hogan
Lynda has been in Japan for 20 years and blogging about Saitama on her personal blog insaitama.com for 14 of them. Despite its central location, just North of Tokyo, Saitama is still quite unknown to the international tourist, but frequented by domestic travelers. It is a great place to experien...
