Why, hello there! Long time no post. I took a trip back home for just over a month and only recently got back. So now it's time to get back into gear! *Dons battle armor and charges forth*
Let's start with something that is WAY overdue: New Year in Japan!
During the lead-up to New Year, houses and commercial places started to display traditional decorations made of bamboo, braided straw, and sometimes colourful paper with fortunes written on them. It's also a custom to display them inside the home too, but we didn't do any of that this year. Breakin' the rules, yo!
As part of the Japanese tradition for celebrating New Year's Day (plus a few days after) is to visit shrines and pray for a good year, twe decided to take a quick trip to a large local shrine, called Hachimangu, in the town of Morioka.
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| These were taken some time before New Year, hence the lack of people, and taken with my smartphone, hence the lack of quality. |
We arrived around 7-ish, a light bit of snow falling, and there were already a heap of people. Many were lined up waiting to pray at the biggest shrine on the site. There were other smaller shrines too, not to mention a whole lot of stalls selling food and decorative goodies. Although we didn't actually pray at any shrines, we nommed on obanyaki (filled pancake-like snack) and some amazake (sweet rice wine). So we're going to have a bad year, but at least we had some yummy food, hahaha!
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| One small shrine for each Japanese zodiac sign |
The largest shrine at Hachimangu is beautifully decorated and up-kept, as are pretty much all Japanese structures nation-wide (they're very proud of the condition of statues, shrines, temples, etc). The traditional way to pray at a shrine for New Year is to cleanse your hands with water provided from a trough (and dry them of course), approach the shrine and generally make a coin donation, followed by rattling a bell that hangs from the ceiling, clapping twice, making your prayer then bowing. I've been told that it's not a custom to clap at all shrines.
You can also purchase fortune scrolls called omikuji for a small cost, each with a different level of fortune ranging from the worst luck to the best luck (there's five levels all up). The one pictured is from a different shrine, and on this occasion I had chosen 'small fortune', which isn't great but not the worst.
So back to Hachimangu! We only stayed for a short time, because as the day progressed a whole ton of people ventured to the shrine to pray and indulge in some food-goodies (and I'm not a fan of crowds). Some of the foods available were obanyaki (as mentioned above), taiyaki (fish-shaped bean-filled cake), takoyaki (savoury batter balls with octopus pieces), jagabataa (baked potatoes with butter and other toppings), dango (glutenous rice flour), and sticky rice crackers. Are you drooling yet?
Our little venture didn't last long, so there's not much else to talk about in regards to what we did that day. Another huge thing for New Year in Japan is a variety of sales at stores. When I was in Tokyo for New Year in 2013, people would shout from storefronts about their sales, which wasn't great for someone like me who hates people shouting in my face...but anyway, I imagine this year was no different and many people took advantage of the sales that went on...me not being one of them, lawl.
Spending New Year in Japan was an interesting experience, since back home it's all about partying with friends, loud music, drinking and setting off fireworks...or in my case, watch fireworks on TV and calm the pups down from being spooked by fireworks in the neighbourhood. So I'm glad I had the opportunity to be here for this special time of year, and for a second time at that!
Let's see if the fortune was wrong and this year actually turns out to be amazing *insert cliche winky face*
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