Tokyo New Years

Line ups for the temple on New Year's Day in Tokyo - patience is a given

Tokyo 2007

I had a pretty great New Year’s Day in Japan. I did the traditional foods for breakfast at my cousins – very awesome. Then I took off for central Tokyo where I spent the day hopping around to different temples.

I started off at Ueno, a funky place to begin. The temple had a huge line-up of people. It was a very interesting temple because it had all these interesting statues and plaques, one of which seemed to commemorate glasses. Another one had a stone carving of a koto. It was somewhat puzzling and I wish I could have read the inscriptions.

I came across the Dali exhibition going on in Ueno - would love to go!

Shopping and temple hopping around the Ueno area....lots of yummy food!




A familiar site on the left that boasts the ever present Nova, the bottom of the heap for English teachers in Japan. On the right, the very trendy Shibuay 109 (ichi maru kyu) where beautiful woman abound shopping madly. I heard the 109 in Shizuoka-shi was strictly woman only since men were known to have loitered around the staircases, looking up the skirts of woman shoppers! hmmmm




I could not resist this pic - little doggie mannequins. Boutiques selling doggie fashions can be found in every chic shopping area. The sizes tend to be small, as these mannequins will attest. I have seen plenty od dogs dressed up. I have not seen any fashions for cats, btw.

I noticed that many shops and vehicles had special New Years adornment like the police car picture. I went to another temple around the Ueno area and had my fortune given to me by a Buddhist priest and it was very cool and inspiring. I then made my way to the stalls and it was packed with people. I bought a bunch of cool things for myself as a birthday present. I love shopping in Japan! There were all these bargain bags for sale everywhere – Fukubukuros. You around 50 – 100 bucks and get a bag full of goodies and this was going on big time everywhere.

I continued with my shopping and temple hopping spree, but this time in the Shinjuku and Shibuya area. I went to the Meijijingumae and a tiny shrine off Omotesando, bought some good luck amulets and headed to meet up with friends. All in all a most awesome New Year’s Day and a great way to start off 2007.

Quiet day in Tokyo, as you can see there are few cars. I believe this is Shibuya.