Konichiwa Year of the Dog

So after our jaunt to Nara we rang in the new year quite (literally on a giant bell) by spending the evening with our Japanese sensei Osaki's family & having a traditional Japanese new year. After a feast of a dinner & some relaxing time - I watched an Ultimate Fighting type tournament with Osaki's son, but I can't imagine that's too traditional - we headed off to visit the Iwa Shrine. We bypassed the long (and getting longer) line to pray & just took in the festivities. And it was much more festive than "visiting a shrine to pray" makes it sound. There were beer cans a plenty, food vendors, and of course canines.

We stayed for 20 minutes or so after midnight & then decided to go check out the Buddhist temple's celebration too. It was as festive in spirit, but much smaller & more intimate. This is where we got to ring the bell (so large it is struck with a mini battering ram) as the Buddhist tradition is to ring the bell108 times to ward off the 108 human desires/sins. It was definitely more mellow than the last few years, but an amazing experience all around.

We didn't take our camera because I didn't want to be gaijin gawker (for once), so these images are all New Year's cards we received. They are insanely popular here, maybe even more so than Christmas cards in the States.