New Year's in Tokyo (a Photo Essay)

New Years, or Shogatsu (正月) is the most important holiday to the Japanese. The country pretty much shuts down between December 29th and January 3rd. On the night of New Year's families in Japan write letters to friends and coworkers, stay up all night to watch the first sunrise of the new year, and enjoy a well-earned vacation. I am too much of a softy to stay up all night for the new year, now that I am treated for my brutal insomnia I enjoy my sleep. Anyway, at about 7pm I decided to head out on a New Years pilgrimage to one of my favorite shrines in Tokyo to greet the New Year in the traditional Japanese way. Here is a photo essay of my experiences tonight.

I vacillated back and forth throughout the day as to whether I would go to a temple of simply sleep through New Year's as is my custom in the US. At around 7 I decided that I only live in Japan once (not at my current rate I ain't) so I decided to go ahead and do it. I called up my friends to see if anyone wanted to go with me, but they were all busy. My buddy Cosentino is in Nara and Kyoto (see my previous pictures on my SmugMug Account) and my other friends are homestay which means they have to spend the most important Japanese holiday with their host folks. That left me all by my lonesome. Sometimes you have to go solo it seems.

At 7:30 I started walking down towards the bus stop to catch the city bus to Fuchinobe, the closest train station to me. I didn't know if New Year's Eve counted as a holiday or not in Japan so I waited at the bus stop until after the first bus was supposed to have come on the "Weekends" schedule, when it didn't I realized we were on the holiday schedule. Since I didn't want to wait 30 more minutes I decided to schlep it the mile or so uphill to the station. I stopped in at Lawson's, my friendly neighborhood Convenience Store to give Isoka-san the gift I picked up for her in the US. Isoka-san is the friendly lady who has been a sort of default tutor to me since I arrived, always letting me practice Japanese on her and helping me feel out the place when I first arrived. Many of you have heard me mention her.

I began walking up hill to the next bus stop and wondered whether or not to go ahead and wait on the bus due to the cold, I decided not to and keep on. My brief delay did give me pause to take the above picture and realize this was turning into a Photo essay.

As I continued on my way up the hill I remembered there was a small shrine on the
right hand side of the street that I had never been to. I only ever passed it on the bus to the station. I figured this night would be as good as any to go check it out. I turned in to find the shrine deserted, and many of you know there is hardly anything creepier than a deserted place of worship. First place I went to was, of course, the purifying spring. All Japanese shrines have a purifying spring that is used to clean the hands and mouth before entering. It is designed to separate the sacred shrine from the profane outside. (This is a concept that permeates Japanese culture on the whole).

After cleaning my profane personage I headed to the main shrine, stopping to take some pictures along the way of the various statues found around a shrine.

Due to size restrictions on this blog, and the obvious need not to clutter it up too much, all of the pictures I took tonight will be on my SmugMug account, and the ones I really want to highlight will be here.

I memorized a prayer I wrote in Japanese to offer at the shrine. As you probably do not know the Japanese pray in a very standardized way at shrines. First you approach the altar and throw in a coin or two. This serves two purposes: It allows the caretaker of the shrine to support himself, and it serves to awaken the Gods. Coins impacting the altar have a distinctive sound.

After throwing in the coins to awaken the Gods and feed the family, you clap twice and no more ("two shall be the number of thy clapping, and the number of thy clapping shall be two...no more, no less. Only to two shall thou clap...") then bow, and say your prayer. My prayer was as follows (remember it, it will be said again at two more temples):

"I humbly ask for the following; health for my elder brother, peace for my younger brother, sight for my sister, peace and long life for the newlyweds, mercy to the innocent, safety for those who fight in the name of freedom. I humbly request peace and long life for my family and friends and that no harm come to them ever."

I then clapped twice again ("...for two shall be the number of thy counting. Not to three shall thou count, nor to four. Five is RIGHT OUT...") backed away from the altar, and bowed once again before going down the steps.

I found a small altar to an unknown deity. At first glance I guessed it might be Inari, a very important deity of rice, harvests, fertility, and foxes. This statue is missing the customary red bib that marks the respect this deity is given. It could also be one of the demon forms of Raiden (雷電神様) the God of Thunder, Lightning, and Protector of the Gods.

Whoever this deity is, he or she is important enough to have their own offering box within the temple compound. I took this picture, threw in a few coins, and moved on.

I got back on the main road and headed towards Fuchinobe station once again. As I approached I realized that I had never taken a picture of it, nor any other part of nearby to where I live. I took one or two pictures of the station and headed to the platform. By this point, it was becoming really cold.


It was about 8:30 or so by this point and the night was coming fast. I only had until midnight to make it Asakusa, my destination, before the lines all shut down.














I took a picture of the timetable, I don't know why. Probably because I was planning out my schedule in my head. I also took a picture of the platform at Fuchinobe, my usual train stop. The track on the left goes to Machida, the "big" part of my district of Tokyo, and the namesake of the whole Special Administrative Region. The track on the right goes to Yokohama (yes, the Yokohama). I took these pictures because I couldn't believe how deserted the train station was. Millions of people, about one half of Tokyo's 12 million people will go to a temple tonight to bring in the New Year, yet there was no one traveling by rail. I wonder if there was a massive carpool I was missing.

I took the train to Machida where I changed to the Odakyu line. Odakyu is a private line, whereas JR (previous pic) is public. To get to downtown Tokyo, the Skyscraper district, by JR takes going north seven stops or so then transferring to a eastbound train for 10 more. The Odakyu solves this problem by cutting across the system like the hypotenuse. Odakyu takes you directly from Machida to Shinjuku (the start of the Skyscraper district from our perspective) in about 5 stops on the Rapid and roughly 30 minutes.


I rode the Odakyu rapid to Shinjuku, listening to my iPod all the way. I arrived around 10 to once again switch trains to the Chuo Line, which cuts Tokyo in half. Shinjuku, by the way, is the busiest and largest train station in the world. The only superlative it does not meet is largest in size, which is owned by Grand Central in New York City. I tried to get a picture of the full scope of the size of the place, where I have gotten lost more than once, but I don't think I could do it justice.

In case you are wondering, that is not the wall in the background, just another train blocking your view of the never-ending train tracks.


After transferring yet again to the subway I finally made it Asakusa and my destination, Sensoji. Sensoji (浅草寺) is a temple devoted to Kannon, the goddess of mercy. Legend has it that the brothers Hinokuma Hamanari and Hinokuma Takenari fished a statue of the goddess out of the Sumida River in 628. They attempted to return it to the river but it kept returning. They took it as an omen and built a temple near the river and the site where the statue was recovered. Kannon, the Goddess, is a very important deity in Japanese Buddhism and her shrine is one of the most widely visited in Japan.

Before you can see the statue, though, you must first pass through the imposing Kaminari-mon, the Gate of Thunder. This gate, as the picture shows, is protected by two frightening individuals. On the left, Raiden (or Raijin) the Thunder God. On the right, Fujin, the Wind God. These two individuals are known as protectors of the Gods themselves and of the Kannon in particular. The massive paper lantern in the center serves to remind entrants of the thunderous nature of the guardians and the role they serve for her. To further add to the effect, the underside of the lantern hosts a large and intricate carving on wood of a dragon-spirit.

It may not have been the best idea to enter this particular shrine, heathen that I am.

Anyway I turned to walk down the long street that links the Kaminari-mon with the Temple itself so I could do what I went there to do, namely get in the HUGE line (that was growing by literally hundreds of people a minute) to make my way towards the shrine so I could make my New Year's prayer to the Goddess of Mercy herself.

I first had to cleanse myself, getting in the line to appear before the altar having not cleaned myself at the purifying spring would have been, shall we say, gauche. The police were out in full force at the temple. Which is understandable. Since 9/11, and previously the Tokyo subway sarin gas attacks, the Japanese have learned the value that extremely-high population gatherings like New Year's pose for terrorist strikes. The Japanese became more paranoid after 9/11 than we did in many respects. I never feared for my safety, but it was nice to see so many uniformed officers out at the gatherings.

I purified myself...again...at a strangely cool fountain, one that I am sure was not there last time I was at Sensoji about a year ago. It depicted a statue of a man encircled by a serpent of some type. None of the police officers seemed to know who he was, or they didn't want to take time out of surveying the crowd to pay attention to me (the latter is more likely).

The sake jars were also brought out for the event. For the uninitiated, Shinto holds the value of Sake highly, it even gets an honorific. Something about very potent rice alcohol makes the world go 'round I suppose. The Gods are said to enjoy it just as much as we do (well, not me of course, but some of you) so they are supposed to come down to inhabit the sake barrels on special occasions. Wealthy families like to pay for the construction and donation of personal family jars to patron shrines to both show off and add flavor and variety to the Gods choice of vacation barrels.

I can see it now, "We know you have a choice when selecting your sake jar for that brief respite from the daily grind, the celestial workload, the cosmic 9 to 5. We're glad you have chosen Nakamura's family sake barrel for your succor. We hope you'll inhabit us again in the near future. Thanks for flying."

After taking a few shots of the barrels it was time to get in line. Pictures of the line, you ask? No way, buddy. The line was growing by leaps and bounds every second I delayed, and if I wanted into the line before midnight and the bells start ringing, I would have to move quickly. I also figured most of y'all had seen a long line before and didn't need a photographic representation of it.

Once I made it to the altar though I followed standard procedure (Section 5, subsection 90, paragraph 4, line 6 of the Japanese Manual of Standards and Practices for Shinto and/or Buddhist Events) and offered up my prayer. The same one I offered to the local shrine in my home.

I also stopped by the smaller shrine to Raiden and offered the prayer yet again.

Once I was done with Asakusa I high-tailed it back home so I could get in before the trains stopped running, but I wanted to experience the toll of 108 bells. According to Japanese Buddhism, there are 108 worldly desires and they can be symbolically "broken" or driven away by the toll of a bell at a sacred shrine. I wanted to experience all 108, just take them in, and see what it felt like. I headed back to the same shrine at which I started but I was late and missed about 30 or 40 of them. As I approached the temple I discovered that they were letting pilgrims ring the bell. I hurriedly got in line for my chance to drive away a worldly desire. I tolled the bell thrice, once for this year, once for the previous year, and once for the year to come. (I don't know which worldly desire was mine to drive away but it may have been sloth, or good hair, or perhaps girl scout cookies). As I write this some three hours later they are still tolling the bell, waiting on the first sunrise of the New Year, where shouts of "Bonzai!" will fill the air I am confident.

Now, with literally dozens of greater shrines across Tokyo, why did I choose Sensoji? Most people go to Meiji-jingu, the shrine of Meiji the Great, Emperor of Japan and figurehead of the Meiji Restoration that modernized Japan. Many go to a Fire God's temple in Narita city, near the airport. More people head to Kyoto to the dozens of temples that are literally every block of that ancient city. So why Sensoji?

I chose Sensoji because it represented something I sincerely hope for in the New Year. Sensoji is a temple to mercy, kindness, and general warm-fuzzies. It is also a temple to power and protection in the incarnation of Raiden. I am a hard-liner on most issues, mostly because I need to be in the world in which we currently live. Living in a world of utopian idealism or socialist pipe dreams accomplishes nothing but weakening the country I love. I do hope for the day when we do not need militaries to defend us, do not need brave people to die for the freedoms many of us take for granted. Now, however, I know this is a violent world. I also know the world I hope for will never come. As long as we live in a violent world, Sensoji is the temple for me. It encapsulates my feelings exactly; a temple to peace and mercy with the backbone of strength and power. I prayed for my family and dear friends at the shrine to mercy, then prayed for the people in uniform and the civilians working hard to support them at the temple to Raiden.

Am I Shintoist? Definitely not. I figured, however, can't hurt anything. Makes me feel better too. (and I am pretty sure he is listening anyway)

Happy New Year.

CNN vs. Fox on Execution Day

As news broke of the death by hanging of former Iraqi Dictator and Democrat's best friend...I mean, someone the democrats wanted the world rid of just as badly as we Republicans did Saddam Hussein I broke my normal policy and opened up CNN as well.

A few striking differences between the ways the completely unbiased CNN and that bastion of biased Republican-bedfellow FoxNews reported the same stories.

On CNN: "Tornado scare sends Bush running for cover"
On FoxNews: ""Bush seeks shelter during tornado alert."
On CNN the headline gives the image of a frightened Bush running with all his speed to a shelter, the FoxNews report is the truth, with no meaning or context attached to the story. The Fox story simply tells the truth, the CNN one embellishes.

On CNN: "Protests, Celebrations" marking Saddam's execution. Only problem is, the pictures showed 1 (ONE) protest, and three celebrations. CNN found it necessary, however, to put "protest" at the front of the story. Call me, well, normal, but shouldn't the headline be either in 1) Alphabetical order or 2) in order of precedence of each separate topic?


Just a few disjointed thoughts I had directed towards CNN, glad to know it still doesn't understand why it is losing viewers.