Holidays - Part II (Mainly in Tokyo...)

New Year was celebrated in style, with the traditional hatsumode, or first shrine visit of the year, made at about ten past midnight. There was a large queue, it was very cold again! Certainly atmospheric, even if the recording of the national anthem kept cutting out. The crowd was extremely well behaved, as I've come to expect...

For the first night of the New Year, we decided to celebrate as we meant to go on for the next 12 months... With karaoke of course! Joined by Younger Sister herself, we managed the 11pm to 5am shift with no trouble (although there's an evil rumour that I fell asleep about two songs before the end - that was possibly the effect of the umpteenth beer).

The resulting hangover was beaten into submission the next morning by a trip to the Imperial Palace. More queueing, but this was certainly a Special Queue - the palace grounds are only open to the public twice a year, and we received a blessing from the Emperor himself. A very impressive occasion - I don't think there were even that many people waving little flags during the Golden Jubilee, although I'm sure that the seclusion of the Japanese Imperial Family helps to preserve much of the mystique.

New Year celebration photos here.

Another excursion took us to Nikko, and the Shogun's mausoleum. More temples, more queuing, some famous carvings and a beautiful forest setting. I'm afraid I'm really not the best person to talk about the places that I saw the first time I was in Japan! Particularly if they're not spectacularly snow-covered or containing the Imperial Family... Pics are here.

For the last queue of the season we visited Sensoji in Asakusa. Fortunes were drawn and noodles were eaten! And as usual there were plenty of people. Some of them can be seen here.

Phew. Having subjected the unfortunate family to the kind of turbo-tourism I generally perform when I'm only dragging myself around, I finally allowed them to go home...