Shinachan and I decided this year to visit the Sensouji Shrine in Asakusa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asakusa ) in Tokyo. It's famous as one of the places to visit temples/shrines for the New Year holidays, which are extremely important in Asia. As Asakusa is only about six minutes away from where we live (an historic area called Ningyocho, in Nihonbashi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonbashi) by train, we decided to try to brave the crowds and go for the experience.
Not surprisingly, there were thousands of people lined up in front of the shrine as soon as we got there at around 10:30 p.m. on New Years Eve. We lined up with the rest, and before long the line started moving. It was cold, but not snowing (unlike Colorado), so we didnt mind waiting. At midnight, a group of sumo wrestlers (Seriously! About seven of them, of which three or four were wearing kimono's) started yelling out a countdown. At zero, the crowd yelled out in celebration, only to revert to anticlimatic silence shortly after.
We finally reached the temple at around 1:00 a.m., at which point we threw coins into the offering box and got away as quickly as we could from the crowds. There were lots of outdoor stands selling all kinds of foods, so it was fun to walk through them after that and sample various things. Shinachan had oden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oden ) and I had corn on the cob and a really delicious baked potato from Hokkaido (you can see the steam rising in the picture).
Usually, trains in Tokyo finish running at around midnight and start up again at about 5 a.m, but during the New Year holidays they run all night. We caught a train back to Ningycho, and finally made it back to the apartment at about 3 a.m., at which point we promptly collapsed, exhausted, in bed. A long New Years eve, but fun!
Happy New Year 2007!!!
John and Shinachan
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