Oshogatsu ] is the word meaning "new year." Currently 4 days into 2012. How has your new years been so far? After about half a year of Culture Japan Season 2 production, I've always said that I'd take at least a day off in the new year. It turned out that so much other work piled up over the 6 months that it was difficult to just drop everything for a whole day ^^
But did manage to get some time to do the new year stuff which includes going to our local temple to make a prayer and exchange our Omamori and Ofuda.
Inside the main temple. In the middle there is a box called Saisen Bako ] where you would throw money before making a prayer. You would often see the box drawn in Tohou illustrations.
Usually one would throw a 5 yen coin - the pronunciation for "5 yen" in Japanese is "Go-en" (pronounced "goh en") and is the same pronunciation as "ご縁" meaning "good luck or fate."
Behind the Saisen Bako is where one will see many priests blessing the amulets and talisman before they are handed over to the owner.
If you are playing, remember not to take this too seriously. All the PSP games and wot not are all for display purposes only. What you are supposed to do is shoot a cork at one of the targets - if it falls over then its yours. Only the small items worth less than 100 yen will fall over ^^
This guy here is getting greedy and tries to go for the Koala snack. Even though he puts the gun right next to the target, the snack barely budges.
Hope you had a nice time off but also hope that you get back into gear soon - especially if you got goals to reach!
Before I forget, you can see coverage of previous years in the following photo articles:-
-Japanese New Year 2006 (Meiji Jingu in Harajuku)
-Japanese New Year 2007 (Sensouji in Asakusa)
-Japanese New Year 2008 (Meguro Fudouson)
-Japanese New Year 2009 (Meguro Fudouson)
-Japanese New Year 2010 (Meguro Fudouson)
-Japanese New Year 2011 (Meguro Fudouson)