Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

Culture

16 Comments

Crowded New Year customs

Apart from the homes of their parents, and possibly even pachinko, the place most Japanese people will set out to visit over the New Year is the shrine. An event that, apart from a quick pray, invariably involves coughing up for a new collection of lucky charms.

Japanese new year

And, more often than not, an omikuji (random fortune), which, after the fun of finding out if it’s a good or bad one,

Japanese new year

can be securely fixed to something suitable and swiftly forgotten.

Japanese new year

Thus allowing for arguably the most favoured part of most Japanese festivities, the food, which invariably comes from a fascinatingly varied selection of vendors, serving up equally varied victuals.

Japanese new year

All the way from the savoury,

Japanese new year

to the sweet.

Japanese new year

Plus, for a bit of continuity, below are a couple of the same characters from last year, although one of them seemed decidedly dejected about the new decade.

Japanese new year

And cooking with what appears to be his replacement, this still spritely old fella could well be tackling 2010 as a retiree.

Japanese new year

2 Comments

Japanese workers working #23

Considering the frightening amount of financial failures over the last few years, the purchase of an apparently lucky trinket or two definitely can’t do any harm as we prepare to delve into a new decade.

And, if nothing else, this bloke looks like a good old boy to buy something from.

Japanese lucky charm

4 Comments

Bonsai banzai

The patience and perseverance required to produce, and more specifically maintain, a bonsai must be absolutely phenomenal — regardless of whether the tree in question is a genuine work of wonder or a rather more modest midget.

And yet for all their unquestionable beauty, perhaps most fascinating of all is that despite a lifetime’s work, it’s more than likely that the person who initially set out with a mere specimen won’t be around to see their creation bear fruit.

Japanese bonsai

Quite literally.

3 Comments

Shichi-Go-San silence?

Celebrated throughout November but focused mainly around the 15th, Shichi-Go-San (Seven-Five-Three) is a rite of passage of sorts for young Japanese children; an event that dates back as far as the Heian Period (794 to 1185), with its modern version involving elaborate outfits and ceremonies aimed at warding off evil along with wishes for long and healthy lives.

But after a day filled with formalities, photos galore and incredibly uncomfortable kimonos, the patience of participants, and indeed parents, can possibly be pushed to the limit.

shichi-go-san, seven-five-three