明けましておめでとうございます!
For me, 2012 started at Zōjō-ji temple, looking at Tokyo Tower, listening to the 108 chimes of a giant bell, with a skinful of sake. I’ve certainly never celebrated like that before and it’s one I will always remember. But more on that later – first there’s all the Christmas fun to talk about.
Our Christmas tree arrived about five minutes after I finished my last blog post and I had great fun decorating it with a fairly random assortment of Ikea and 100 yen shop goodies. By the time everyone’s presents were underneath it looked pretty cool!
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| Kurisumasu tsurii! |
My Japanese school term finished with a lovely Christmas party on 21st December which was a great way to round off a term of hard graft. We all brought a dish along to the party and it turned into a veritable multicultural feast as many students cooked something from their own country. In the absence of a deep fat fryer to make fish and chips, I took nuts, crisps and sake.
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| Lots of food and lovely people, and someone gave me a silly hat to wear |
A couple of glugs of beer and rounds of 乾杯 (cheers!) with the head of the school and our class teachers were followed by some serious eating and chatting about plans for Christmas and New Year. Shortly after that my phone rang and it was my brother, saying that he was already at Tokyo Station and was I on my way to meet him…oops! I hastened into town to find him at the station and begin the task of fighting off the jetlag until the evening. He is a complete trooper and we had a full afternoon of sightseeing (gardens and temples) followed by a great dinner of ramen before he eventually turned in. I was seriously impressed.
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| Action shot! |
The next couple of days were all about the sightseeing as we took in the Yasukuni Shrine, the Imperial Palace Gardens, Ginza and Odaiba. Matt’s keeping a blog with his photos from the trip and they are great so have a look at them here: http://matttravelling.blogspot.com/ My photos from the last couple of weeks of December focussed more on the Christmassy things going on in the city. Here are a few of them (and some not-so Christmassy things too).
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| Some of the red momiji leaves in Hibiya Park hung on into December |
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| This tree reminded me of Alice in Wonderland |
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| A small parade on Chuo-Dori in Ginza |
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| Hiding at the end of the platform at Hamamatsucho Station |
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| Huge tree outside Mikimoto Pearl in Ginza |
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250,000 LEDs are in the Blue Forest illumination in Shiodome so I competed
by wearing my fancy coat |
We decided to have our Christmas lunch a day early so that Simon didn’t have to go to work on Boxing Day with a big hangover so on Christmas Eve we cooked a full turkey roast and sat down to enjoy it wearing fluffy antlers and looking out over sunny Tokyo. Bizarre and very cool.
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| Horrible photo but I felt that homage to the gaijin Christmas celebrations was required |
Christmas Day was also an original experience…after breakfast and presents in the morning we set off on a six-hour hike up Takao-san in the foothills of Mount Fuji. At the top, for Christmas Day lunch, we had pot noodles and sake. Fantastic!
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None of us actually managed to take a photo of
lunch so here's one of the view instead |
In truly efficient Japanese style, Christmas was over by 7am on 26 December. Simon (on his way to work) sent me a text message to tell me that the 3-storey-high Christmas tree that took two days to put up outside our apartment building had already been cleared away and the space tidied up. In the blink of an eye the New Year decorations were up. These come in different shapes and sizes and are often created from pine sprigs and bamboo. The abundance of green, combined with the almost-ever-present Tokyo sunshine made everything feel wonderfully spring-like all of a sudden. The most prevalent of the New Year decorations is the kadomatsu (gate pine), which welcomes ancestral spirits of the harvest. These are outside almost every office building and restaurant and many homes too. I bought a small one and it’s welcoming the ancestral spirits to our flat. At least I hope the spirits are giving me the benefit of the doubt as my kadomatsu is a) plastic, b) inside our flat because it’s pretty and I can’t see it if it’s outside the door and c) there should be a pair of them (male and female) but I only bought one. Points for effort perhaps?
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| Outside Mikimoto Pearl, where the Christmas tree was days earlier |
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| Giant kadomatsu in Ginza |
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| And my not-so-giant kadomatsu at home |
New Year’s Eve itself was great (the bits I remember of it at least). Matt’s girlfriend Emma arrived at around 7pm and we all watched the traditional TV programme Kōhaku Uta Gassen (imagine if Eurovision had a party with Disney and they all ate a lot of sugar - superb!) on NHK while having drinks and dinner. Emma had come off a mega 24-hour journey so turned in a bit later while Matt, Simon and I headed to Zōjō-ji, a Buddhist temple next to Tokyo Tower. By the time we got there it was rammed! We muscled our way into a decent position from where we could see the temple, the bell that would be rung at midnight and the tower too. We cracked open our cartons of sake and waited for the countdown to begin. At the stroke of midnight, Tokyo Tower changed its display from 2011 to 2012 and hundreds of people in the temple grounds let off clear helium balloons with their New Year wishes attached. We hadn’t got there early enough to get balloons so just drank more sake and watched in awe as the floating wishes sailed off into the night sky.
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| Hundreds of wish balloons waiting to be let loose |
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| Not much to say about this one... |
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| Rosy cheeks from the cold (or the sake) |
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| Old meets new - an amazing view to have at midnight |
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| Artistic shots fuelled by more sake |
A lot more sake was consumed after that, and the less said about my general state on New Year’s Day the better. I managed to get out of the house in the afternoon to do hatsumōde (first shrine visit of the New Year) at our nearest shrine, Hie Jinja. It was amazing to see everyone getting their omikuji (fortune) and omamori (amulet) and queuing to pray and ring the shrine bells. We kept seeing people carrying arrows with bells on them and at the shrine they handed these over to be blessed before taking them home. Simon did some research and found out that these are called hamaya and are sold only during the first few days of the year. The name means ‘demon-breaking arrow’ and their purpose is to ward off misfortune and bring good luck. Well then, 2012 is all set to be a fortunate year for us because we returned to Hie Jinja the next day to get our hamaya and have it blessed. It’s now sitting in the lounge and it really is very beautiful.
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| Daruma dolls for good luck at Hie Jinja |
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| Hamaya blessing ceremony |
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| My hamaya |
The four of us also went to Meiji Jingu, one of Tokyo’s biggest shrines. This attracts around 3 million visitors over the first few days of January and the police come along to help with crowd control, measures for which include traffic lights for people! Thousands of people were there on 2nd January but it was indeed a beautifully organised bundle.
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| Hordes inching towards the main shrine at Meiji Jingu |
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| The other side of the board had green writing that said 'go'. Simple but totally effective! |
Since then, Simon’s been back at work and Matt, Emma and I have been continuing with the sightseeing. They’re here until Tuesday next week so there’s plenty more in store, which I shall save up to write about in my next post.
I hope 2012, the year of the dragon, has started well and that it proves to be a happy, fulfilling and successful year for everyone.
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| May the dragon bring good fortune and happiness to all! |
またね!
