Happy New Year ! Omedeto gozaimus !

A police man motions to crowds throwing coins, many of which (coins that is ) can be seen on the ground behind him

We were walking around on New Years Day, and our little neighborhood was so strangely quiet and dull, we couldn't help ourselves ... we went to Meiji Jingu to stand in line with the rest of Tokyo and toss coins before the shrine we have already visited more times then we can count. And stand in line we did ... for several hours, but now we have done it, and in its own strange subtle way it was worth the wait. I will elaborate tomorrow, cause now I got to go put my feets up.

UPDATE

So New years Eve, we were sitting around, I dont actually remember what we were doing, and when 11:45 rolled around, we headed out to a nearby temple. This being Japan, there was a long line, so naturally we got in it. At some point as we waited, with no fanfare at all, the old year passed and the New Year began. Eventually we found we were waiting in line to ring the giant temple bell. We shuffled along for awhile, realized the line was twice as long as we thought, snaking through the temple cemetery, and decided to bail. We went home and fell asleep to the distant gonging of the bell late into the night.

Hatsumode

On New Years day, or even early morning, many Japanese go for hatsumode, the first visit to a temple of the New Year. I had thought of finding a small temple for hatsumode, but our streets were so silent and still, against all advise and conventional wisdom we went to Meiji Jingu, arguably the most popular place for hatsumode in all of Japan. We strode along the broad walk, the pace of the crowd unusually fast, until it came to a halt in a massive line, which again we obediently joined - only this line was probably 5 yards across. Over the next two hours, the line shuffled and condensed until finally, with sun setting behind us, we were upon the gates of the temple. There in groups of about 100 we were assigned a police cordon, and followed them stopping and starting through each tori gate, till at last we were in the familiar temple grounds. There a considerable distance from the shrine itself, we shuffled forward, threw our coins, and said a quick new year's prayer. And that was that. It was a bit anticlimactical, and yet somehow still very significant.