Hatsumoude 初詣

Hatsumoude means your first shrine or temple visit of the year.  If you're really good, you went to the local shrine or temple around midnight New Year's Eve, but most people try to go within the first few days of January. Going to a big, famous shrine is popular, so you'll find the major ones like Sensouji in Asakusa and Meiji Shrine in Harajuku, absolutely packed. We live in Saitama, so we went to Hikawa Jinja near Omiya, along with hundreds of other people.  You line up to pray and give an offering - usually a 5 yen coin. Go-en sounds like "connection" in Japanese, so it's a way to make a good connection with the gods.  UPDATE: my friend just told me she puts more money - for example 15 yen (jyu go) sounds like "enough connection", 25 (ni jyu go) sounds like "double connection", 35 (san jyu go) "triple connection"and so on - so on her advice, I'll try doubling my lucky connections next time!

After you've done that, you usually make a beeline for the omamori store, staffed by "shrine maidens", to buy omamori - a lucky or protective amulet for the year. Miko - the shrine maidens at a shinto shrine - in their distinctive white haori  and red hakama have been fetishized in countless manga and anime, but in reality, most of them are just university students earning some part-time cash.

Busy Miko-san

You also need to dispose of last year's omamori and daruma, so there's an area where you can put those, and you're expected to give a small donation. The shrine will burn them in early January. I never knew omamori had a "use by date" before!

Daruma waiting for burning

Next, you need to get your fortune for the new year, so you can line up again and get your omikuji. A lot of people say, it's better not to get the most lucky one (daikichi), or your life won't get any better than this year. If you don't like your fortune, you can tie it to a branch or one of the metal wires at the shrine and hopefully the gods will take care of it while you await better fortune. People often also tie their good fortunes there after reading them.

Must have been a lot of bad fortune this year

Finally, what my husband likes best about hatsumoude is the array of food stalls surrounding the shrine. There's always yakisoba, okonomiyaki, takoyaki and those bananas covered in chocolate and sprinkles.