New Year's Day

Howdy, homies. Forgive me if this post isn't particularly entertaining; my final exams are coming up and my brain is already beginning to fry from the mountain of studying I'm subjecting myself to. Oh kanji, how I loath thee...
But anywho, I thought I'd do a post about New Year's Day here in Tokyo. Unfortunately, I got sick the day before and couldn't go celebrate, but my friends went ahead to Asakusa, an area of Tokyo that is famous for its many temples and shrines.

Asasuka is most famous for the Sensou-ji, the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo. The outer gate of the temple is called Kaminari Mon, or "Thunder Gate", and is a popular tourist attraction because of its giant chouchin, or lantern, seen here.
Beyond the Kaminari Mon is the Nakamise-Douri, a 250 meter-long shop-lined street selling a large variety of traditional and modern Japanese goods and souvenirs. Here it is decorated for the new year.

Here is a look at one of the shops. I especially like the masks. Very attractive. I wonder what my sister would think if I brought one back for her as a souvenir...

On New Year's Day in Japan, families flock to local temples and shrines to pray for good fortune throughout the coming year. Asaskusa boasts one of the largest crowds in Tokyo on this day. People wait as long as two hours to get inside the temple. Maggie said they only had to wait for forty-five minutes, though.0_0 Holy cow, that is a lot of people.

By the way, major thanks to Maggie and Melanie, to whom these really great photos belong. And shout out to my grandmother, who is awesome, as always. She knows why. See you after finals!