Adventurasia Community

On January 1st (or sometimes New Year’s Eve or even 1 or 2 days later), people will visit a temple or shrine to wish for health, happiness and prosperity for the year ahead.Thankfully there aren’t so many people living in Hanawa so we could get some good pictures.

I remember when I first came, some friends and I stayed up all night and ended up in Enoshima to watch the first sunrise of the year, and afterwards went to the Meiji Jingu Shrine — I heard that a million people visit the shrine over the course of a couple of days. Each person then throws money into a huge collection box. They were letting people in, in groups of 100.It’s no wonder monks are one of the highest paying professions (apart from lawyers, accountants and doctors) in Japan!

Filed under: Japan, Nutcracker, Personal