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.
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.
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.
Have an extra jolly 2015 with lots of beer, sake and travelpeditions, Dru!
You too, but with umeshu and Smirnoff instead. 😀