New Years Eve

There were little flurries of snowflakes in Tokyo this morning. It took Henry and I a few seconds of wondering what the floating white things were before we realised - snow !!! After some deliberating, we decided to spend the day and night in our home neighbourhood again. I ventured into the food-hall of Seibo, one of the huge department stores. New Years Eve was probably not the best time to visit, but it was quite an experience - absolutely heaving with people stocking up on New Year food and sweets and gifts. We bought some kit kats and whisky and went home for a rest before heading out for karaoke and dinner.
After dinner we walked to the nearest temple we could find on google maps. It was so quiet and peaceful even though it was so close to the city lights. A few people were milling around but at 10:30 pm there was no sign of any monks so we went home to bed.
(post-script - Russell popped out again just before 12:00 and lined up for an hour to ring the bell. He had to team up with a Japanese couple because there were so many people. I feel sorry to have missed that experience).Read more