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Jan 04 2010 17 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

Categorized: Culture, Food and Drink, Photography, Religion

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. gwinzer says

    1/4/2010 at 6:20 pm

    The next to last photo dude does not look happy at all!

    Reply
  2. Kafkaesque! says

    1/4/2010 at 8:57 pm

    That food makes my mouth watery 😮

    Reply
  3. AS says

    1/5/2010 at 1:18 pm

    I went to a local Hatsumode and although nothing like this it was a good experience :D. Eating some of that stall food would have been nice lol.

    Reply
  4. Allan alexandre says

    1/5/2010 at 2:33 pm

    Instead of the beauty shot good

    Reply
  5. Jim says

    1/5/2010 at 8:58 pm

    Great shots…
    What camera are you using?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      1/5/2010 at 9:19 pm

      Thanks Jim.

      I use a Nikon D300, and these were all shot using the Nikkor 85mm f/1.4.

      Reply
  6. Eric says

    1/5/2010 at 10:09 pm

    Yakisoba, with the fried egg thrown on for free! Sounds pretty good. Judging by the picture he’s also thrown some bacon on top, and all for only 500 yen. I can’t understand why he’s feeling dejected though, he still must be making money.

    Reply
  7. phossil says

    1/6/2010 at 4:05 am

    Miko girl (first pic) is really cute!

    Reply
    • ait_meijin says

      1/6/2010 at 7:03 pm

      You are absolutely right. 🙂

      Reply
  8. jamesmallon says

    1/8/2010 at 2:06 am

    Gotta love a country where the girls dress up as presents!

    Reply
  9. Brandon says

    1/9/2010 at 11:11 am

    I’m sorry for asking this seemingly obvious question, but at what shrine did you take these photo’s?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      1/9/2010 at 11:38 am

      No need to apologise Brandon. I didn’t mention the shrine’s name, so there’s no way of knowing really. They were taken at Okunitama Shrine in Fuchu, western Tokyo. There’s not much about it in English unfortunately, but here’s a link to the ‘official’ website.

      Reply
      • Brandon says

        1/10/2010 at 4:29 am

        Thank you kindly, I spent the New Year’s taking pictures at Hachimangu shrine in Kamakura.

        Reply
        • Lee says

          1/10/2010 at 9:58 pm

          Nice. Although pretty busy to say the least I’d imagine. Did you get many good shots?

          Reply
          • Brandon says

            1/20/2010 at 4:17 pm

            I managed a few good shots. It was so packed though, that I didn’t come out with many that I was proud of, they were allowing people to enter in waves that day, so you can imagine the crowding.

            Reply
  10. Rex Dgrey says

    6/12/2010 at 5:41 pm

    That girl with the temple maiden dress is cute. do you have more pics of her?

    Reply

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