Tokyo: Other New Year Observances

Doorway decorations: at entry ways of many establishments and homes, there were greenery decorations, very Japanese looking. I'm inspired. Next winter I'll try them at home.













Eating soba: on New Year's Eve afternoon, we happened to walk by two of Tokyo's oldest soba noodle joints. Lines were going around the block. The photos below are of the same line for one of the soba restaurants, wrapped around the block.





Lion dance: originated in China over two thousand years ago. We have not seen this variation. Though at a glance it seems subpar, it is actually rather engaging between the lion and the audience. View the embedded video below, or click here.



Temple visits: Japanese are rather enthusiastic about visiting temples. Every one of them, big or small, was having good business. We went by Meiji Jingu (photos below) on the 4th? The crowds were unbelievable, we gave up. This religion "gene" seems to be still going strong in Japan. which I had previously assumed would have been diminished by education and development......The last photo below is from our 2007 visit to Tokyo. That's Sun-Ling walking away at right.

Tokyo: Second Day of the New Year

Another tradition in Tokyo is the royal family's New Year greeting that takes place 5 times during the day at the Imperial Palace on January 2nd. We braved the long queue, not so much to see the royal family, but to see the crowds. Over the New Year there were orderly queues in all parts of Tokyo; at temples, restaurants, and stores. This was the only one we bothered with. It actually wasn't bad. We spent a total of 20? minutes standing around, and again as much time traversing the palace grounds to exit.

The Imperial Palace grounds were about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. We were offered Japanese flags at the entrance but declined. Then walked as far as the #3 holding area (see video 3rd below) where we waited in brilliant sunshine for 15 minutes or so.






Then we were allowed to proceed up to the grounds in front of the Imperial Palace. On the walk up we had a view back to #3 holding area.






And we waited in place for only a few minutes before the Royal Family came out on to the enclosed balcony for the first greeting of the day, and a short speech was made. There was a palpable feeling of excitement when the family came out, but little or no cheering, just an outbreak of very vigorous flag waving. See my very short video 2nd below








And it was a nice exit walk from the grounds through the East Garden.

Tokyo: First Day of the New Year

In addition to visiting major temples and shrines in the new year, people also make pilgrimages to multiple temples and shrines in a neighborhood that specialized in one of the Seven Lucky Gods, six of who came all the way from India (Buddhism) and China (Taoism). Before Shinto was created as a state religion in 1868 during Meiji Restoration, deities of all origins were worshipped together.

On New Year's Day we made a pilgrim circuit in Nihombashi, since everything is closed on New Year's Day in Tokyo, on the level of Thanksgiving and Christmas at home. Some businesses close for multiple days. This one restaurant I had my eye on is closed for three weeks!

A few days later we had a walk in Yanaka, an older part of Tokyo. One could have easily checked off 70 temples.

There was a queue for the first shrine, the Koami Shrine, on the Nihombashi circuit. Actually there was more than one queue. First below, see a guy holding a "this is the end of the line" sign. Second below, see the head of the line at the Koami Shrine, and the couple at lower right reading a piece of paper telling their fortune for the upcoming year.




Suitengu Shrine


The last of the seven shrines of Nihombashi is the Suginomori Shrine.


After a long day of visiting shrines, we stopped at our fav ramen resto, Hidakaya, for two bowls of noodles with vegetables, and an order of veggie gyoza (potstickers). Yummy!




Our Yanaka walk on Jan 04 was lots of fun. The first temple we visited already had Year of the Snake banners up.




We walked down the Fujimi-zaka Slope, a street that used to have a view of Mt Fuji until it was blocked by tall new buildings. This is a dubious claim to fame IMO.




Time for a lunch break, so we crossed the RR tracks (with a brief stop for some trainspotting) and headed for our fav tempura resto, Tenya Tempura Tendon, for tempura rice bowls, and noodle soups.








Buddha Image at Tennōji Temple.


Temple Gate.


Yanaka Pedestrian Street


And we finished up the walk at the Nezu Shrine and its very modest Torii Gates.

New Year's Eve in Tokyo

New Years are a big deal in these parts of the world and it is celebrated on the Lunar New Year. However, during the Meiji Restoration, in an effort to turn away from the old (China) to the new (the West), Japan switched to celebrating the Gregorian New Year, January 01, in 1873. And it's the biggest holiday of the year.

For New Year's Eve there are various countdown events all over the city; we opted for the more Japanese celebration at Zojoji Buddhist Temple. While it's a rather low key affair, it draws a lot of people, with excellent crowd control, and various queues all over the temple grounds. There were queues for getting into the temple at the strike of midnight for making new year wishes. There were queues for joining, for a fee, assistants to the monks to strike the sacred bell. There were queues at various food vendors. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. For my pyromaniac self, the favorite by far was the ritual burning of offerings, a veritable bonfire.

In our jetlag craze, we then took the train to Oji, trying to catch the end of the Oji fox parade that ends at the Oji Shrine at 1:30 am. It turned out our intel was incorrect - the parade ended an hour before we arrived. We were then stuck at the station - the trains were too crowded to get on. We finally got back to our hotel at 3am, on top of jetlag. I don't know when we'll be able to get on a regular schedule.

Our hotel in Tokyo is located in the Kanda District. The Kanda Train Station was almost deserted as we headed south to Zojo-ji Temple on the JR Yamanote Line at 10:30pm on New Year's Eve. For the holiday, this line runs all night, albeit, with reduced trains, which means the coaches can be veryfull when revelers return home after midnight. But for now, all is quiet.


From the station its a 10 minute walk to the main gate of Zojo-ji.


It's very busy inside the temple's main courtyard, but the Japanese have a "keep moving slowly" habit in these situations so it's not scary at all. The iconic Eiffel Tower-ish Tokyo Tower looms behind the temple.




The bonfire. Where 3 men are tossing "the old" into the flames.










Check out the video below taken just after the stroke of midnight. The men toss some big pieces into the fire. Then I happened to catch the rush of people into the temple to make their first offering of the year.


A photo and a video of the bell ringing.




We left Zojo-ji Temple at 12:15am and headed north on the now busy train to the Oji Shrine.


Not much happening at the Oji Shrine except for burning old ropes.


AFter leaving the Oji Shrine we ran into some international students who had participated in the fox parade.


Earlier in the day we ate our New Year's Eve noodles at a Udon Noodle place. Yummy!