Well, this year (last year? both???) I did something for New Years Eve that I’ve wanted to do for years – go to a shrine or temple for midnight!
So with some of my old work colleagues we went to Sensoji in Asakusa. We arranged to meet up at 1130, and already there was a huge line. But it was moving quickly, and before we knew it we were in Nakamise-dori, which was all decorated for New Year (2009 being the year of the cow/bull/ox… its all the same in Japanese).
And also various other food and temple goods stalls. You would be surprised how tasty a steamed potato with kimchi and mayo is at 1 in the morning.
So, after this we all split up. I decided to pass on going to karaoke with some of the others and started heading home (believing my train was running all night to my station). Sadly, this was not to happen, as my train was only going to just outside of Tokyo, and not all the way out to my place. So at 230 in the morning, found a 24 hour MacDonalds, and spent the next 2 and a half hours sitting around there eating burgers and surfing the net on my phone (which is very limited…).
Caught the first train home at 511 and watched some guy play with his hair for the entire time. You can see in my video below. A couple more pictures can be seen at http://flickr.com/photos/michelelisa/
So that pretty much sums up NYE08 in Tokyo – lining up in the cold to throw a coin in a box. Glad I’ve done it, but never doing it again. Think I’ve decided I like summer better than winter!
the story of an Aussie girl living in Japan, who loves travel, hiking, walking, flowers and food.
yamaonna 