There are temples and shrines all over the place in Tokyo, and yet as a whole, the Japanese really aren’t all that religious. Superstitious, on the other hand, may well be a different story, but pious? Probably not.
Come New Year’s Day, however, an absolutely massive number of people head to one of these many places of worship and rather refreshingly eat, drink, have a really good time, and even pray for something they could do with in the coming year: money maybe, or a decent score in a dreaded exam.
But for some, less of a scene and much more silence is what’s called for, and fortunately for this fella, he found such a place.