Hatsumode at Meiji Jingu!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone's had a good start to 2012! I spent my first day of 2012 doing 初詣 with Margaret, eating pancakes, and then spending the rest of my day in bed because I definitely did not sleep enough the night before, and being tired doesn't really mix well with early mornings out.

Oh yeah, also there was an earthquake. It was kinda big, but I'm okay. No damage here! Though next time we have an earthquake of that size, I should probably remember to get under a desk or something instead of staying in bed...

The new year is pretty much the biggest holiday in Japan, and there's so much to explain that I don't think I could do that great of a job, so here's a fairly comprehensive article on it from Wikipedia. Sorry if you wanted a fabulous explanation from me; because I don't have a host family and thus didn't really experience New Year's "right", I don't think I could do it justice.

On Saturday night, I watched 紅白歌合戦, a New Year's Eve favorite, with my floormates. Kouhaku is, to put it simply, the biggest celebration of music and crazy ever. It is THE BEST. Overdone sets, overdone costumes, and it's also four and a half hours long. It's more fun to watch in groups, because that way you can make comments about the acts. This wasn't my first Kouhaku actually; when I was in high school my Japanese teacher would tape it and bring it to class so we could watch parts of it at the end of the first post-winter break class every year. I'm planning on hopefully being able to do that if I become a Japanese teacher; it was a really cool introduction to Japanese pop-culture, which isn't something you often learn about in Japanese classes. Even if I don't become a teacher, though, I'm still planning on making Kouhaku an annual tradition for my New Year's Eve.

Early on Sunday morning (about 7:30 AM), Margaret and I left our dorm for 明治神宮, where we decided to do our 初詣 for 2012. We were really worried about running into large crowds, since 明治神宮 has been known to have up to 3.85 million visitors between 12/31 and 1/3, but we were lucky! I guess we just went early enough!

We got to the shrine at around 8:10 AM, and though there were easily a few hundred people there (maybe even in the thousands), we didn't have to wait long! We were able to get back to the dorm by 10:00, and we closed out the morning by making pancakes and watching a New Year's Day celebrity special on TV with Michal, who lives across the hall from me.

Here are some pictures from our morning out yesterday!

The sign says the shop will NOT be closed for New Year's.

The first of many torii at 明治神宮.

You're supposed to wash your hands before entering the main shrine; this is a temporary set-up for the New Year's crowds.

This is one of many permanent 手水舎 at the shrine.

The main gate.

The shrine itself; it was closed off and a larger, temporary set-up was put up to handle the crowds.

One of the many lanterns hanging around the shrine.

People could tie their bad おみくじ here in hopes they won't come true this year.

The view from the inside of the west gate.

People could buy お守り here; I didn't get one though, because they're really expensive right now!

This week I'm off to this exhibit with Margaret and my friend Meghan, who's doing JET out in western Japan (she's in Tokyo for the week), for my birthday! I'm really excited. The rest of the week will probably be studying and planning with Margaret for our super awesome trip in March, for which we already have hotel reservations! I'm so excited!