Happy New Year everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the hangovers. I know I was. If you have never been in Japan during the New Year, you probably have never heard of Hatsumode. It is originally a religious activity where you go to a shrine or temple to pray for a good year. It has become more of a tradition as less and less people are actually religious.
2015 Hatsumode
2015 Hatsumode
For me, it is a mixed day. It started off with me being culturally sensitive to Japanese customs and now I’m not sure if I actually believe in it. Let’s just say that I’m a very superstitious person, so I don’t mind going every year. This year I had a nice drunken visit to my local inari shrine. I was the only person there, so I had time to take some “nice” photos on my phone.
2015 Hatsumode
2015 Hatsumode
You can be sure that I’ll be back to the same shrine to avoid angering the inari. I heard they can be pretty vengeful if you skip a year so I will appease them. Hope you had a good New Year celebration. If you are in Japan, and somewhere besides your home, hope you have a safe trip back.
Caged Inari Must Not Be Happy
Happy Inari
Have an extra jolly 2015 with lots of beer, sake and travelpeditions, Dru!
You too, but with umeshu and Smirnoff instead. 😀