Today we did hatsumoude (first visit of the year to a temple or shrine) to pray for a good year. January 7th is a bit late, as most people try to do it as early as possible, with just after midnight on January 1st being the best time. But for the first few days of the year the temples and shrines are too crowded and we're usually too busy so we always end up going late. This means that we miss out all the yatai (food stalls) that set up around the bigger temples and shrines, selling all sorts of hot yummy junk food. But that's OK, because if there's one thing we don't need more of right now, it's junk food.
We went, as usual, to Higashifushimi Inari Jinja Shrine, which is near our house. This is Tokyo's version of Kyoto's famous Fushimi Inari Jinja Shrine, complete with a mini version of Fushimi's jumble of torii-lined mountain paths. This is one of many thousands of shrines in Japan dedicated to O-inari-sama, the fox goddess. She is the guardian of rice and the patron of farmers, merchants and fishermen, as well as of business in general. Many businesses start the new year with employees (or just top executives) making a visit to an Inari shrine, and today we saw a few groups of suited businessmen.
I added the pictures we took and a bit of an explanation to the Christmas/New Years 2004 album.
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