New Years' Eve In Japan
What do Japanese people do for New Years? Do they get drunk and totally trash the place? Do they go to the world's best summer festival?
As it turns out, neither.
We were invited for a New Years dinner at the home of one of Kathleen's Japanese teachers. Her two daughters were home for the New Year break. They're both in their 20s, and Asuka lives at home, while Aya is studying in the US. Since Asuka studied in the UK, they have two totally different accents, which takes a little getting used to!
Dinner was fantastic - homecooked Japanese food.
About 11.30pm, we headed off to the neighbourhood shrine. It's a common Japanese thing to do on New Years, to bring in the New Year. There was a huge line of people, queueing to get blessed by the Shinto priest. The temple is lit up by a bonfire, there was another priest beating a drum. People sell sake and noodles, both symbolising a new start.
We had to leave at about 12.30pm, since our two connecting trains were only available once an hour. I was expecting a mass jam of people, as in Australia, but hardly anybody was catching the trains. SInce most people head home to the country to visit their families over the holiday, that would explain why things were so quiet. It's definitely not like New Years in Australia, which is just insane if you're out bar-hopping.
