Meiji Shrine New Year visit

Like is traditional for Japanese people to visit a shrine in the first days of the year for Hatsumode or first shrine visit. Like last year, I joined the most of three million people visiting Meiji Shrine for hatsumode.





Like last year, I avoided the first days to try to evade of the crowds, but still I found a large number of visitors, still this crowd is quite small compared with the ones found on the first day.







Unlike previous years, this year the crowd was managed better by the police, as less people were allowed into the main hall at the same time, allowing for a less stressful moment for prayer and offering to the Shrine.




To end the shrine visit, and celebrate that this year only took three hours, the best is to take a walk through Omotesando, which is beautifully illuminated this time of the year.


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New Year congratulatory palace visit

The Tokyo Imperial palace in the Chiyoda ku, is a 7.4 square kilometer area of buildings and gardens. Originally built as the Edo castle in 1457 during the Tokunaga shogunate, the castle became the Imperial palace after the Meiji restoration.



The palace is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan and is mostly off limits to the public, with the exception of two days: the Emperor birthday and on January 2nd.



A large number of visitors come on that day to celebrate the New Year and hear the Emperor message.





Visitors enter by crossing the famous Nijuubashi, passing the main gate, into the kyuden totei plaza.



The imperial family greets the visitors from the balcony of the chowaden reception hall, where emperor delivers a short New Year message.




Visitors then leave through the sakashita gate.
Happy New year to all.

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Winter Illumination at Tokyo MidTown

As every year, Tokyo Midtown set up an illumination display for the winter season. As usual, large crowds gathered to admire of the display.


This year the illumination was named startlight garden, with over 250, 000 LED representing the Milky Way and shooting stars.





Visitors avoiding the cold weather enjoyed the display from inside the building.







At the garden, the impressive display was sometimes difficult to appreciate due to the crowds but the combination of lights and music made it worthwhile to endure the cold.



Additionally to the lightshow, the trees of the surrounding areas were also decorated accordingly.

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Views from Nagoya Station

Nagoya station in the Aichi prefecture is the world largest train station by floor area. Most of the space is located in the JR Central towers; one of the twin towers is used by a hotel and the second one is used as office space.




The towers provide great views of the city. the night view specially showing up the beauty of the Nagoya castle.




The streets around the station, normally busy on weekdays, were mostly quiet on this holiday.





The illumination decoration on the lower floors attracted many visitors, giving the station a special holiday feeling.


View Nagoya Station in a larger map

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