A Very Tokyo New Year's Day

While Christmas is kind of glanced over here in dear ol' Nippon, New Year's Day is one of the biggest holidays of the year. On this day, it is customary for a family to go pay their respects at a shrine. I had heard that things got pretty hectic around the bigger shrines so, naturally, curiosity got the better of me and I dove headfirst into the mayhem. I visited the biggest shrines in Tokyo which I have previously blogged about, Meiji-jingumae and Asakusa. Meiji-jingumae is just a short walk from the apartment so I went there first. I am in and around this part of town quite a lot and I have never seen it this crowded. I didn't want to get caught up in the mass of people so I stood off to the side and took a few pictures. I'm also a tad skeptical of intruding on religious festivals because I want to retain the sanctity of these events and not just scoop up a dose of fodder for some ol' timey, touristy, blog-based exploitation. My aim is to treat these proceedings in a respectful way that any custom should be treated and not mock them by pretending to take part in them.

Nearly everyone was carrying an ornamented arrow which puzzled me until I did some further research. These arrows are called "Hamaya" which translates literally as a "Demon-breaking arrow." Hamaya have been used since the Edo period as a good luck charm and a talisman of sorts to protect the bearer from evil spirits. The whole town was abuzz and even the areas that have no shrine around were bustling. As I made my way to Asakusa, the trains were packed and the usually quiet train culture was electric. I got off a few stops before the Asakusa station and walked about a half hour to the shrine. Shops were decked out in their finest New Year's decor which include raffia wreaths, lamps and pine boughs. From what I could tell, the colors of the New Year in Japan are white, gold, and a beautiful shade of pale green. The usual deep hues of the streets were brightened with the presence of Kimonos on young and old, male and female. As I got closer to the shrine, the streets slowly became more crowded till I rounded the corner of the road the shrine was on and BAM! PEOPLE! I was still a few blocks away from the shrine but it was hard to move where I wanted to move. I got caught in the wave and moved closer to the shrine. I managed to duck out into a safe spot and stood to observe. There were cops, there were armored cars, there was basically a mini tank and there was humanity. The line to the actual interior of the shrine was a barricaded section down the middle of the street that was guarded against line-cutters, rabble-rousers and the like.
Initially, I was content with observing the festivities from afar and photograph from the safety of my bubble. Well, my plan went awry and my adventurous nature grabbed logic by the throat and forced his resignation. I walked into the heaving throng and was tossed about on a current of revelry. I walked close to the main gate and got swept down one of the side streets of the shrine. Here, movement was dictated solely by the collective mind of the crowd and those who had other ideas were pushed back in line. I realized that I needed to somehow get out of this mess and I saw to my right a couple of policemen ready to open a gate to the center street of the shrine. I held my position for a few moments and as soon as the gate opened, people burst through from both sides. It turns out, this was not a way into the shrine but just a place to cross to the other side. I pushed my way to the other side and found myself in the exact same situation just facing the other way. Like an anxious pimple, I managed to pop out of the bulk of the crowd into a slightly less dense area of the shrine to take a few more photos before making my getaway down the banks of the Sumida-ga river.