As the brilliant red, green and white explosions reflected off the surface of the lake, I turned to my partner with two simple words: "Merry Christmas."
Our journey had begun eight hours earlier at Takasaki Station in eastern Gunma Prefecture. Alighting from the Niigata Shinkansen, we navigated through a small forest of bus stops before finding the boarding point for our holiday getaway. For around 20 km, the bus scooted through rural scenery dotted with fields of plum, peach and pear trees, and then climbed the switchbacks of the Tenjin Pass before we debouched beside the chilled depths of Lake Haruna, Japan's answer to Oregon's Crater Lake.
After checking in to our hotel, we strolled around the crystalline lake overlooked by 1,391-meter Mount Haruna-fuji's flat-topped conical symmetry until we arrived at the foot of a ropeway. Once aboard, we were whisked vertiginously up 300 meters to a lofty and panoramic perch.