07 NYE in Japan

One of my most memorable experiences in Japan would definitely have to be counting down to the new year from the steps of the Souzouji Temple in Tokyo right underneath the lights of Tokyo Tower.

The excitement of the night was probably helped along by the fact that this was our first night in Japan and we had the night to ourselves to celebrate after checking in at the Hotel Villa Fountaine Hotel and participating in our first briefing session as an entire tour group.

With newly formed friends, I spent the afternoon supporting the Japanese economy with our shopping in Shinjuku before getting ready for a night of food, sake and NYE celebrations, Tokyo style.

Japanese people traditionally head towards a Buddhist temple to see in the new year and then to a Shinto shrine on the first day of the new year to perform their first prayers for the year. We therefore decided to go to the nearby Souzouji Temple to experience the festivities first hand.

We managed to rustle up a fair few of us to brave the walk from our hotel to an izakaya (Japanese food and drinking establishment) for dinner which was closer to Souzouji Temple. (I type "brave" because I'm an absolute idiot with directions and would have been hopelessly lost if I had to navigate myself.)

Along the way, I spied many shop fronts decorated with shimekazari (see above) and kadomatsu. It was a good thing that most of them had closed for New Year's or they might have been a little weirded out by the random Asian girl who wouldn't stop taking photos of their shop.

It was my first time at a proper izakaya and I was very impressed. The food and service was great, the atmosphere was warm and cosy and the sake? Pfft! Of course it was good!


Just a word of advice to anyone who wants to order sake in Japan: 'Sake' is actually the Japanese word for alcohol. What we call 'sake' overseas is actually called 'nihon shu'　（日本酒　-　にほんしゅ） in Japan.

We made the mistake of ordering 'sake' only to be asked what type we wanted. After several seconds of confusion, you could almost hear us all mentally slapping ourselves when we realised what a very 'gaijin-like' mistake we had made! We basically asked the waitress for five servings of alcohol, no wonder she was confused by our vagueness! (Tsk tsk, us Japanese teachers should probably have known better!)

We were such a large group that we ended up having to sit on two separate tables instead of the one. Which suited us youngsters just fine. The "kid's table" usually ends up having the more fun after all!

After having eaten and drunken our fill for the night, we took a leisurely stroll towards Souzouji Temple. Sarah pounced on the first takoyaki store that we encountered along the way and shouted us to a few of the delectable balls (even though we had just eaten, lol).

How we savoured those takoyaki balls, thinking that that might be the last time we come across a vendor on our trip since our itinerary didn't really allow all that much free time for people to go detouring for takoyaki snacks.

As we happily munched on our takoyaki balls, we stepped through the large temple gates only to be greeted with this....


Food! Food! And more food! It was an amazingly glorious sight to behold! With steam billowing out from the food stalls into the chilly night air and the smell and flavours of various deliciously cooked food mixing and forming a heady aroma which wafted towards us beckoning us forward. It was a shame the lines were so crazily long (plus that whole thing about having eaten thing, too...I wasn't actually all that hungry), those food stalls were so damn enticing! *sigh* yakisoba, takoyaki, okonomiyaki...wherefore art thou so very delicious?

Anyway, after much shuffling through the crowds, we manage to make it to the temples themselves to get in our last prayers for the year. I felt a little strange since one of the temples was full of attendants selling new year charms and decorations.

For some reason, I felt that the whole religious experience was slightly cheapened by this act of commercialism but then again, who am I to criticise them? I did end up buying some charms for my family as souvenirs after all...just not on that particular night.

We still had some time to kill before midnight and since it was warmer inside the temple buildings, we stayed there for as long as possible before we were ushered out by attendants since they got suspicious of all the loiterers who had the same very clever idea as us.

So out into the freezing cold we went and when I looked up past the temple's awnings, the iconic Tokyo Tower was there to welcome me to this strange foreign land.

I was struck by the notion that this image was really the essence of what Japan is today: the temple awnings represents a country steeped in age-old traditions and beliefs whilst Tokyo Tower, magnificent in splendorous red and white lighting, represents a land internationally known for their advancements in science and technology, over-populated cities and its people's fast-paced lifestyles.

It put me in a rather contemplative mood for the rest of the night as we huddled close together in the temple's courtyard and waited for the new year to clock in. (I mean, literally 'clock in', we kept glancing at the SEIKO clock as it gradually ticked over).

It was a bit annoying when they kept dimming the lights and doing practice-runs of the final countdown though but I guess it gave us all something to do (even if it was just counting down from 10) to keep our minds off the cold.



And boy was it worth it!

Many people had jostled their way through the crowds to write their new year wishes (Japan's big on dreams and wishes thang) and attach them to large clear plastic balloons. At the stroke of midnight, these balloons were released into the air en masse and the spectacle that it created was absolutely magical.

Edit: Much to Liam and Sarah's surprise and delight, the new year was also heralded by Ben Folds Five's "My Philosophy" (see clip below!). "Why on earth are they playing this song in Japan?", they wondered out aloud.

Edit: Notice how the sign says "20th"? That's because Japanese people have a different system for counting their years and commonly refer to 2008 as "Heisei 20" (as in the 20th year of the reign of Heisei).

OMG! It's a blue Tokyo Tower!

We were all stiff from standing for several hours and I couldn't really feel my feet by the time we reached midnight as the cold from the stones beneath me had seeped into my very bones, but it was memorable all the same. I could feel the festive exuberance pulsating through the crowd at midnight as we heard the priests begin striking the bell to usher in the new year.

Midnight on New Year's Eve is usually when the celebrations really begin in Australia. In Japan however, this is the exact opposite.

We were all flabbergasted as the crowds quietly turned around and headed back home. There were no wild whoops of joy or drunken shouts, just an orderly procession of families and couples headed home to bed. It was kinda freaky actually...like the kind of behaviour you might find in Brave New World.

However, Team Australia felt ready for sleep and we took our cue from the locals and headed back to the hotel. We had an early start the next day and it didn't hurt to rest up after a gruelling thirteen or so hour flight.

After all, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

This actually wasn't the izakaya we ended up at. (I think the place we went to was called "Tengu" ?) How cute is that light-up miniature Tokyo Tower though?

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Edit: I'm looking forward to NYE this year. I'll be in Beijing by then. I have a feeling there's not as much emphasis on the Gregorian calendar's new year as there is on the lunar calendar's Chinese New Year over there but since I'll be there for Christmas and both of the new year festivities, it'll be interesting to experience it all from a local's perspective.