This post was written in 2008. Some information may be out of date.
In Japan, people usually make their first shrine visit of the new year to a nearby shrine on January 1st. They draw fortunes to see what the year holds and pray for their New Year’s wishes.
A friend invited me along, so on the evening of December 31st I went to a shrine for my first hatsumode since coming to Japan. I didn’t bring my digital camera, so these are photos from my phone. It was so cold that I couldn’t be bothered to take a camera out.
The train to Izumo Taisha
My friends. We met up in the evening, had nabe and a few drinks, and then set off.
Izumo Taisha
There were a ton of people. I think we queued for about 15 minutes.
It’s snowing.
It was really, really cold. We could have just come in the morning, and I started wondering if we were putting ourselves through this for nothing.
Hoping for good connections, I tossed in 15 yen and made my wish for the year. It’s such an outrageous wish that it probably won’t really come true. Well… ordinary wishes come true if you work for them, so there’s no need to pray for those anyway.
Like eumbok back in Korea, on the way out after praying you get a tiny sip of sacred sake.
The crowd
Who knew there’d be this many people… Great job braving the cold, everyone~