New Year's Prayer

Today my husband and I went for 'Hatsumode' the first prayer of the New Year.

Lot's of people go on Jan 1, or even just after midnight, but I think it's too crowded then. When we are in Kagoshima, we do go to the local temple just before midnight.

Anyway, this morning we were up bright and early to get to Mt Tsukuba before the crowds. Bit of a shock when I went outside and found the car covered with a layer of frozen rain! The whole car looked like a cake covered with white icing! Raindrops had flowed down the sides of the car and melted in place. This was the first time this winter it was so bad. Took a while to get all the ice off ...

We got to Mt Tsukuba about 9am. Thankfully the road wasn't busy at all so it was a smooth drive. We only had to wait 5 minutes or so to get a parking space. {As an aside, did you know that from Feb 1, the big free parking area on Mt Tsukuba that belongs to Tsukuba City is not going to be free any longer? There is a sign that says it will cost 500 yen from next month. Hmm.}

We went up to the shrine, put our old charms into a fire (this is what happens to old ones), put a 5 yen coin into the offering box in front of the main shrine and did a simple prayer, then went over to the shrine window to ask for a special prayer inside. This is the third year to go inside.

It is a bit hard to explain, but in the main building is a large room that is in front of the main alter where the god resides. You go in there and one priest beats a very large Japanese drum and then a head priest prays for various things. (Categories the visitors have asked for.) As he prays he waves about a wand-like stick that has shrine papers on the end. You get a small branch of 'sakaki' (sacred tree) which you present to the alter with a personal prayer. Finally the shrine maidens hand out tablets of decorated wood that have your name on them. These are charms that you display in your house for luck.

As well as these ones, we bought a few other small charms for different things. The arrow is for the house, and the little dog figure is for this year - the Chinese Year of the Dog. I was born under the dog sign so I wanted to get one. He's really cute and hopefully he brings luck! :)

I heard you are not supposed to take pictures inside of a shrine, nor take direct pictures of an open alter, so I was a bit surprised to see a cameraman with a video camera today. He said he was from the local cable TV station and that we'd be on TV next Monday. Famous in 2006! Actually the main alter was over to the side and covered with a curtain, so I guess it was okay. When we married, the alter at Kashima Shrine was open and we couldn't take pictures.

It was lucky we went so early today because as we left there was a huge line of cars to more than half way down the mountain!

So that is Japanese New Year all wrapped up! Just a few days left and it is back to work ...

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