And so 2011 ended in a much different way than it began. It began with my two best friends and my dearest little brother gathered in my old home in Kamloops failing to catch the countdown and bring in the new year on our own terms with movies and junk food as we watched the fireworks over riverside from the balcony. 2012 began with Rhee and I huddled together with warm rice wine with hundreds of others as a shrine on our favourite island as we waited for midnight so we might make our first prayer of the new year, hatsumode, collect our fortunes and buy charms to protect us in the new year. A count down roared up the stairs in our shrine as in Japanese Rhee and I tried to join in, then we all bowed east to the New Year and the prayers began. What a way to bring in a new year! We kampai-ed our strange drinks and waited in line to toss our offering to the islands gods and pray for a good year! It was such a unique place to be for the turn of the year at midnight.
Prior to this we had taken a train to the coast, Enoshima, to be precise, an amazing place where we spent an amazing summer’s day, to wander the island in the dark and wait for midnight. We drank Bailey’s and tried, failingly, to think of our favourite parts of 2011 and watched the ocean and admired the lit up shrines in the dark until we found ourselves surrounded suddenly by worshipers. Such a cool experience!
Anyways, with our prayer placed it was time to wait out the cold winter night for the next famous tradition in japan: the first sunrise of the year. Too cheap to book a hostel for only a few hours, we found ourselves rotating through restaurant establishments to keep warm until we came upon Denny’s in the darkest hours and proceeded, after yet another meal, to fall asleep at the table! So there we slept until by sheer luck I awoke only to discover the sun was set to rise in less than twenty minutes! Scrambling to collect our things we paid and darted away with hundreds of others heading for the beach. It was so cool to be such a tiny part of something so big for a night, first with the prayers, than the long night, and then this our reward for staying awake through the night: a brilliant sunrise surrounded by so many admirers!
With the sun above us and warmth slowly returning to us we made our way by train to Kamakura. There we returned to the prettiest temple there on the hillside that overlooks the ocean and proceeded to find a little path in the sun only to fall asleep again! Later in the morning we found ourselves wandering the main street of Kamakura and making our way through the river of people heading for the famous shrine to do hatsumode at. Techinically we had already done our first visit but I enjoyed watching what went on at a shrine on New Year’s day. The most interesting thing I observed, besides the thousands of charms for sale by the shrine attendants, was that visitors came with sometimes armfuls of last year’s charms, talisman’s and lucky items to have them burnt. As Shinto is very much about cycling, every year one is supposed to begin again by renewing their luck and fortune and energy, at least this is my interpretation. But it was a beautiful cycle to watch. Purify. Offer. Pray. Collect new talismans. And then purge the old.
After we slowly wandered back to the main part of town sat in Starbucks with a couple of coffees and our books and waited for the hostel I had booked to begin their check-in time. We caught the bus there and while searching a map for directions felt the first earthquake of the year. It was so unfortunate that after the year Japan has had, it had to begin with a 7.0. Well we waited that out and then carried on and slept away the afternoon, stopped sleeping to have a bit of dinner and then spent some more time sleeping until morning.
And so the second day of the new year woke us early to head to Tokyo where we met with kevin and Sheena and a new find, Chelsea. With big plan! We were off to see the Emperor! The wonderful Emperor of Japan! Twice a year he makes an appearance when the Imperial Palace is open to the public: his birthday, only a week before on Dec. 23, and around the New Year. So off we were to the gardens to be security check (I had to say good bye to my remaining Baileys) and then cross the famous bridge I adore and enter the palace grounds! Where we were given Japan flags and our timing was perfect for no sooner had we found a spot when out he and his family came and out came our hundreds of flags to vigorously wave in the wind before he gave a small speech about the turmoil of the previous year and his wishes for a better year this one. We all agreed with more flag waving and then it was over. I stopped to admire a magical cherry blossom tree which really made no sense and some maple trees (I’m convinced the Emperor is keeping the best seasons for himself) take some pictures of the castle towers and then go back to the concrete jungle of Tokyo after the pleasantries of the Imperial garden.
We had lunch, check out some New Year sales and then spent the afternoon in a foreign book store where I just about fainted with glee to have real books that I could understand before me! I found my favourite magazine ever: Writer’s Digest, and a book about Shinto and then the five of us headed back to the mountains into sunset to return home.
No comments:
Post a Comment