Hatsuhinode: Where to see the first sunrise of the decade
There's never a better time to catch sunrise in Japan than at new year. From Tokyo Tower to the coast of Chiba Prefecture, here are 10 of the best places to see the first sunrise of the year near Tokyo.
IN PICTURES: Japan says good night to 2018, good morning to 2019
Japan greeted 2019 — the year of the boar, according to the Chinese astrological calendar — Monday evening and Tuesday morning with traditional visits to both major and minor temples and not-so-traditional events, such as the massive one at the famous Shibuya Crossing, where thousands ...
Celebrating New Year's the island way
On the small island where I live in the middle of Japan's Seto Inland Sea, new year celebrations are stalwart traditional. Preparations start a week before when the holiday spirit wafts in on sea breezes tinted with chilling temperatures. The island holds a community ...
On Sunday, people across Japan marked the passing of 2017 and the arrival of the new year at temples and shrines, both big and small. While the evening of oshōgatsu is celebrated in numerous ways, for many it is a time for spiritual purification and prayer ...
A new year, a new prayer, and hopefully luck
New Year's Day is not just the first day of the year in this country — it has a special meaning. Jan. 1 is when people invite a god into their homes — the Shinto deity that presides over safety and prosperity for the year ...
2017 rings in across Japan as shrine, temple throngs pray for good year
As people across Japan celebrated the turn of the year, they flocked to shrines and temples Sunday morning for their traditional hatsumode pilgrimage to make a fresh start on New Year's Day. Meaning "the first prayer of the year," hatsumode witnesses hundred of thousands of ...
New Year's, or shogatsu in Japan, is a time when people can get a taste of traditional Japan. People generally take the time around the New Year's holidays to relax with their families and engage in traditional activities to remind themselves of their heritage. Below ...
Head to your local shrine or temple this new year
The sounds of joya-no-kane, the traditional ringing of temple bells 108 times on New Year's Eve, will soon fill the air as Japan gets set for one of its biggest holidays. For those who haven't been here long, New Year's Eve in Japan is a ...
Spirits and turnout high as New Year's crowds throng to shrines and temples
People wishing to make a fresh start on New Year's flocked to major shrines and temples across the archipelago Friday morning in the annual ritual known as hatsumode (first visit of the year). Major destinations of wish-makers, including Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, Ise Shrine in ...
Meiji Shrine: grounds to ring in the year
As a relatively new place of worship, established less than a century ago in 1920, Meiji Shrine was originally based around the concept of wakonyōsai — a belief that treasured the Japanese "soul," while still embracing influences from the West. Its unusual omikuji, therefore, ...
Getting the year's first prayer in
Whether we are Buddhists, followers of Shintoism or atheists, the first thing many Japanese do on ganjitsu (New Year's Day) is go to their local shrine or temple for hatsumōde, a symbolic first visit of the year. If it's not done on Jan. 1, ...
New Year's shrine visits and countdown vigils a lesson in crowd control
People who couldn't wait to make their wishes for New Year's flocked to shrines, temples and other landmarks nationwide early Thursday morning, and some mishaps were reported amid the day's festivities. Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, known as one of Japan's top destinations for the "hatsumode" ...
