Visitors at a shrine on New Year's day take a load off and enjoy hot sake (rice wine) to warm up on a cold winter's day.
Tables set up in a tent near the shrine where people can get various hot drinks.
One of the many shopping streets located not too far from our home. This one is called "Pal" and still has Christmas decorations up on New Year's day (which is unusual in Tokyo).
Girls at a temple sell various good luck charms for the coming year.
Advertising at MOS burger (a Japanese fast food chain) for their burgers. The selling point s that they are made with a blend of beef and pork rather than 100% beef. Japanese consumers supposedly favor a blend rather than pure beef.
An assortment of last year's good luck charms. The shrines burn these every year and people buy new ones. It's bad luck to keep your charms from year to year, especially for the shrine which won't make as much money selling new charms if you keep the old ones.
A sale on New Year's day at a shop selling various white goods like blankets, rugs, sheets, etc. I believe that the one on the left says the value is 262,500 yen, but you can have it for 50,000 yen. The other on the right says the value is 105,000 yen, but you can have it for 30,000 yen. The items are sale are handmade down comforters.
The board shows ages of various people and whether or not this year is lucky or unlucky for them based on year of birth. The dark pink ones are the unluckiest. You have to pay the fellows at the shrine more to undo your bad luck if you are in the pink.
Another shot of the assortment of last year's good luck charms that the shrines burn every year.
A police box (koban) on the corner of an intersection flies the Japanese flag on New Year's Day.
Grim-looking older ladies serve hot sake to early afternoon visitors to the shrine.
Shrine visitors toss money into the white cloth-covered box and pray for good luck. Most people toss in small change (5 yen-100 yen), though some throw in 1000 yen or more if they are especially in need of bribing God for luck.
Visiting the shrine isn't exactly a rocking good time for kids. It's cold. They have to wait in long lines, and it's boring. This kid unhappily sits on the gravel, no doubt waiting for relatives to finish doing their shrine business.
Plaques for the year of the ox with wishes for the coming year written on back of them. These plaques cost 500 yen each.
A mom takes a picture of her daughter eating a chocolate covered banana at the shrine. Spirituality isn't such a somber thing in Japan.
A hospital lists holiday days and hours. You can see a kadomatsu, a New Year's decoration made with bamboo, pine, and plum sprigs, a Japanese tangerine (mikan) and paper streamers (used as part of Shinto symbols).
An "eco style" poster under a poster telling people not to let their pets urinate or defecate in the area.
Doutor coffee shop's fukubukuro (lucky bags). These are the equivalent in America of a "grab bag" full of miscellaneous items at a bargain price. Unlike some fukubukuro, the contents of these bags are known.
A sushi shop selling bargain nibbles on New Year's Day.
Free sake for cold New Year's traveler's from a local liquor shop. The sake is drunk from wooden boxes.
Signs outside a local liquor store in both Japanese and English.
Lonely buskers outside of the train station, failing to attract attention on New Year's day.
Chocolate covered bananas for sale just outside the shrine. You can't pray without a sugary nosh.
The black canister being held by the woman on the right is full of sticks. The sticks are shaken out of the canister and used for fortune telling.
Oden, various Japanese foods boiled in a broth seasoned with fish (among other things), is popular for warming people up in the winter. It is sold outside the local shrine here.
Various good luck charms and placards for writing wishes on being sold at the local shrine.
Champagne being sold at a local liquor shop for about $7 a bottle.
My husband samples sake in a box, given away free on New Year's day.
The Starbucks in a local train station with its "lucky bags" on sale.
A "lucky bag" (fukubukuro) at Starbucks. The total value of the contents is supposed to exceed the price tag, but you can't know what is inside until you buy it.
Baskin Robbins sign selling variety packs of scoops. It's a popular place for parents to take their children on New Year's day even though it's cold and not the best weather for ice cream.
Girls at a temple sell various good luck charms for the coming year. (Photoshopped to make their faces more visible)
