Happy New Year!

On New Years Day, a lot of Japanese people go to shrines/temples to pray for a good year (regardless of their religion). Since it's one of the traditional ways of celebrating New Years Day, you have to wait in line for hours to get up to where you throw some coins to pray. We went to a shrine near our house in the afternoon of January 1st, and ONLY waited about an hour. Lucky us! :) There are a few temporary shops which sell food and drinks like yakisoba, takoyaki, sake, etc.