Happy New Year

The following photos are in roughly chronological order.


We kicked things off at Marsha's apartment, down the road and up the hill from my own, where friends foreign and Japanese gathered for food and drink. He is the "kanpai," or "cheers." I had already started my beer. Oops.

This is Shun, from Ise; Marsha's boyfriend. He often gives us rides places and tonight was no exception. He picked up a bunch of us at the station saving us a terribly long walk in the blistering cold (we were saving our terribly long walk in the blistering cold for later in the evening, after all). Note his silly T-shirt, a gift from Marsha, who got it in Thailand on holiday this winter.

Mike in the foreground and Dipika looking on. This couple hails from England and are part of the foreign teacher community in Ise. Mike is looking rather stately ... it could be the sake.

The crowd picks up in the historic shopping district near the Grand Shrine, not usually a night-time destination but certainly a hot spot on New Year's Eve. We walked here from Marsha's place. I don't recall how long it took but it was a good hike in at or below freezing temperatures.

Approaching midnight, revelers handed out little pop-it streamer things. Even the little humans got to create little explosions.

A small celebratory blast marked midnight after a poorly metered countdown came via the PA system. Followed a blink later by ...

.. everyone's pop-it thingies up in the air. And then ...

.. some celebrating ...


And more celebrating. Then it was time to hike into the shrine area.

After navigating baby-step crowds through the tree-lined paths for about half an hour, we arrived at the base of the steps heading up toward the inner shrine. You cannot actually enter the shrine; you look at from a distance. No photos once you get to the top of the stairs either. Instead people take photos from the base of the steps, which are pretty boring unless it happens to be time to celebrate the new year.

We were in an "express lane" of sorts ... opting to just pass by with a glance instead of stopping to pray as many do.


After somehow getting out of this mess with everyone accounted for, we rode taxis back to Marsha's place for a short after party. I got home by 4 a.m. exhausted, a little drunk, and ready for 2008.