New Year's is a big deal in Japan, it's probably the most important holiday of the entire year. Most people spend New Year's Eve cleaning the entire home so that the new year can be welcomed fresh and clean. Around midnight, local Buddhist temples will ring their bells 108 times to represent leaving behind the worldly concerns of the old year. Many people visit their local shrines just after midnight and all though New Year's Day to pray for good fortune in the new year.
We had planned to visit a nearby village called Shirakawa on the last day of 2007, but Mother Nature had other plans and decided to dump a crap-ton of snow on Takayama. So instead, we ran errands in town, taking advantage of the car my friend let me borrow in exchange for letting him keep it in my parking lot while he rings in the new year in Thailand.
Anyway, some pictures for you of the snow at the red bridge in Takayama, where we hopped out of the nice heated car just long enough to snap some scenery
Just before midnight we headed over to the shrine in my village, the Minashi Shrine, which is the largest and most respected Shinto Shrine in the entire Hida region of Gifu prefecture. The reason my village is called Hida Ichinomiya is because of the shrine - the name means "first shrine of the Hida region". There was already an impressive line forming before we hopped in, I can't imagine what it's going to be like trying to go there tomorrow. But lucky for us we got our coin-tossing and ritual blessing done before 1am ^_^
I saw some of my student's there too, but most of them had a hard time recognizing me all bundled up. Without my blond hair I guess I'm just another random person. I had no idea I could blend in so well! heh heh
They also had festival stalls set up near the entrance to the shrine, around the first Torii (gate). We bought some tasty little snacks and then called it quits. We wandered over to the Buddhist temple to see what was going on (people were ringing the bell) and then called it a night. Definetly different from the usual way we ring in the new year!
And with that I'm headed to bed. I wish everyone at home a safe and Happy New Year!!!
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