New Years in Japan

Happy New Year!

The New Year in Japan is celebrated in a totally different way than you would find in Canada. Well perhaps that's unfair, in both places people gather together to see out the old year and welcome in the new. However in Japan New Year's is not complete without a visit to the temple or shrine (or both!)to say prayers for the new year.

So New Year's Eve I went over to another teacher's house for a while and on my way home stopped at the local temple (Toyonaka Soto Zen Buddist Temple) to say first prayers for the new year. It was awash with families, couples, groups of friends, people young and old and had festive atmosphere. People ringing the bell saying prayers and collecting their fortune for the new year. The next day as I passed by it was no less busy.

On New Year's Day I visited Fushimi-Inari Taisha, a temple dedicated to the gods of rice and saki, the head Inari shrine, in Kyoto. As soon as I got off the train there was no confusion about where to go- the streets were packed with people. Worse than West Edmonton Mall on Boxing Day. The packed streets were lined with vendors selling all manner of food- corn on the cob, pancake like objects filled with sweet red bean paste, roasted chestnuts, yakitori and fish on a stick (literaly, I wish I had a picture- they were whole fish about 8 inches long, roasted and pierced from tail to head on a stick). With so many people the crowd snaked through the streets slowly towards the shrine, policemen on the lookout. At the shrine people waited patiently for a chance to get to the main shrine, ring a bell and clap their hands to gain the attention of the god of the temple and say their prayer for the new year.

That being done a walk along the pathways, through the many torii gates, is the order of the day with stops at the smaller shrines and at tea houses the dot the walk through the hills. I hadn't realised how much area was covered by the pathways but read somewhere afterwards that is was upwards of 4 km. On coming down from the paths at dusk the shrine and streets leading up to it were no less busy than they had been when I arrived. Apparently this goes on for at least the first 3 days of the new year, perhaps more.

Anyhow below are some pictures from my visits, those that are blurry are from a camera phone partway through my visit to Fushimi Inari my camera batteries died- rats!