Thursday, April 14, 2011

New Years In Japan

Best part about being in Japan in December? Easy. New Years at Zojoji Temple! The temple is located right near Tokyo Tower, you can only imagine how beautiful the place was lit up! Hands down it was the most amazing experience I have ever had. The celebration was so culturaly different than ours. Thousands of people came out to the tower to enjoy food, festivies, and to pray at the temple.

For the first hundred or so people who arrived recieved a balloon. When the new year rang in, everyone let go of their balloons and then the gong was hit 108 times. These are a few of the Japanese traditions. Another tradition they follow is recieving arrows. Seeing how everyone was celebrating 2011, citizens would recieve an arrown with a rabbit attached to it then bring last years arrows to be burned.




                                                           Balloons released at midnight


The food was absolutely amazing! Specialties they served were chocolate and strawberry bananas covered in sprinkles, baked potatoes, noodles, mooshi, and much more!



It was an amazing experience and something I will never forget!


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3 comments:

  1. RebeccaApril 15, 2011 at 1:09 PM

    I'm so jealous that you got to experience such a cool event in another culture. Sounds like a lot of fun!

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  2. MelanieApril 17, 2011 at 7:54 AM

    I agree with the previous comment -- JEALOUS! Having the opportunity to experience something so cool makes my usual New Year's celebration seem lame. Glad you got to take part in this awesome celebration.

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  3. tennisbabe7797April 17, 2011 at 12:35 PM

    This seemed like an awesome experience! I need to make a trip to Japan someday! :)

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