New Year Japanese Style

Although the new year is already a week old this is about what to do on January 1st in Japan. Last week I was just too eager to get my photos of the Ikuta park out there, that I have postponed this little blog entry to today

So, no fireworks on New Year's Eve in Japan, although there apparently was a party around Tokyo Tower where people let balloons into the air with wish cards in it.

Some hard liners then party through the night and wait for "hi no de" = sunrise. It's supposed to bring you luck if you watch the first sunrise in the year.

Then you should go (of course not everyone does that) to "hatsumode" the first shrine visit of the year to receive your blessings for the new year. Arrived at the shrine (after a more or less considerable period of waiting, depending on the shrine you go to) you throw some money in the big box in front of the shrine to placate the "kamisama" the god of that particular shrine. Most popular is a 5 yen coin, which has a hole in it, which again brings you luck. Some people throw 1000 yen bills around, there is no particular rule for the coins or amount of money you offer to the god. Then you bow twice, clap your hands twice, pray, and bow once more.

In case there is a "kane" a bell, you ring the bell (to wake up the god) but some shrines don't have bells to ring. Having done all that you are basically finished, but if you like, there is more you can do. You can go to the shrine's shop and buy an "omamori" – a lucky charm. They come in a great variety. For good health (that's the one I usually buy), for recovery, for child birth, for passing tests (popular with school children), for save driving and so on. You can also buy a "hamaya" that's a wooden, decorative arrow to protect your house (usually I buy one of those as well, since they look so cool).

If you are really correct about everything, you bring your omamori and hamaya from last year and throw them away at the shrine. But don't bring hamayas or omamoris from other shrines, that would upset the god of the shrine you're just at.

Then there is the most fun part: the "omikuji": for 100 yen you can buy a fortune telling piece of paper. You draw it like a lottery ticket and open it and it tells you whether you will have luck or not in the coming year. It depends on the shrine, but usually the omikuji come in categories of: big luck, middle luck, small luck, luck, half luck, you will be lucky in the future, you will be a little lucky in the future, bad luck, little bad luck, half bad luck, more bad luck, and you're fxxing screwed (big bad luck)!

The tiny papers give you detailed explanations as to what's going to happen to you, whether you find someone you're waiting for, how business and study will go, whether you achieve your goals, and so forth, it's a horoscope.

This year I had "small luck" which is the third best from the top and that's pretty good. It's not so positively viewed if you have "big luck", since it can't get any better than that the year after.

If you are not happy with your omikuji you can fold it and stick it to a tree or something around the shrine. You should especially do so if you drew "daikyou" – the big bad luck one. By sticking it to the tree around the shrine, you're asking the kamisama (god) to take the bad luck back.

While I was lining up to receive my blessings at the Hanaen Shrine in Shinjuku, we had a rather fat earthquake again by the way. It was a magnitude four in Tokyo. I think this was more or less the first time I was outside during a bigger quake and it was quite spooky to have the ground shaking under your feet. All the people were stopping with what they were doing and watching a bit anxiously around, but then the shaking subsided and everybody continued on, business as usual. Interesting to see that too.

To make the wait easier you can also get some food from food stalls at the shrine's entrance. The stuff's usually pretty tasty and contributes to the festival atmosphere of the whole event.

So, the walk to the shrine done, there is another nice activity for Japanese new years and that is "fukubukuro" hunting. Fukubukuro are "lucky bags". Shops throw all kinds of goodies into a non-transparent bag and sell them at a cheaper price. A good ratio is usually there's stuff in the bag worth 300 Euro if you bought the items separately, but since you don't know what you're buying you get the bag for 100 Euro. Mostly clothes and cosmetics shops offer these bags and some people line up during the night to get the "best" ones in the morning. A bit like Black Friday after Thanksgiving in the US.

These bags are great fun. It's like Christmas, since you don't know what's inside. Even if you won't wear all of the stuff inside or can't use all of it, usually it's worth it to buy one and sometimes you get really nice surprises with these bags. There's rock shop in Harajuku where I always (if I can and am around during new year) go to buy a fukubukuro for 10,000 yen (currently 100 Euro) and this year there was a pair of pants inside, a jacket, a jumper, a hat and a CD holder case, not bad for 100 Euro.

Well then. Again, Happy New Year 2012!