Happy New Year

Happy New Year! We want to wish everyone the best wishes for 2013!

It's has been a while since we posted on our blog, but 2012 ended with a lot of changes in our lives, so we have been very busy these last months. A short summary of all that has happened (if we have some more time the coming weeks, we might write some more about it): Laurens has found a very nice job, had his visa changed, and is now working full-time in Tokyo. We found a apartment (or more accurately in Japan, a mansion) of our own in Shinjuku! It's a lovely place to live: beautiful building, great view, good location. Finally we have now completely settled in, all paperwork is done, furniture bought and assembled and we can start 2013 really enjoying our new place.

So how is celebrating New Year in Tokyo? Actually, it is quite different from what we are used to. There are no fireworks at New Year's Eve (fireworks is really only a summer event here), but instead it is more common to celebrate the changing of the years at the temple. Around midnight the temple bells will ring 108 times to accompany the transition from 2012 to 2013. 

Another tradition is to start the New Year by watching the first sunrise. Many high buildings which offer a good view specially open at very early hours, or you can choose to climb one of the mountains around Tokyo (for example, Takao) and watch the first sunrise from the top. We, however, though this was all happening a little too early. And after our busy last weeks, we preferred to sleep in a little on New Year's Day.

Doing things the first time in the new year is a central theme the first couple days after New Year. Another important 'first', is the first visit to a shrine (the hatsumode). Shrines all around the country are really busy during the first days of the new year (which are also national holidays), and although the queues to the shrine can be quite long there is a really festive atmosphere around.

Queue

First drag queen visit of the year

Other side of the queue