From Year-End to New Year (2024-2025)

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A Happy New Year!
I’m looking forward to your visits to my site this year too. On January 1 of this year in Japan, the air was chilly, but it was fine and there was no wind. This year started calmly. How’s the beginning of your year going?

During the Christmas season, illuminations shine here and there in the town and people get restless every year. However, I guessed that this year there was less brilliance than the last year. I felt that it was low-budget rather than disappointing.

In Japan, people visited their local shrines to greet and thank the local Shinto deity before, but recently we have visited a shrine or temple different from those visited in the years before. We visited Ikutajinja Shrine in Kobe this year.

Let’s see the year-end and new year.

The following are scenes which are seen in underground shopping areas and department stores in Umeda during the Christmas season. In the department store, maybe a European doll, that we usually don’t see in our daily life, was on display. Brilliant decorations particularly stand out in this period.

In towns, buildings and trees are illuminated and social events are held during this time.

After finishing the Christmas Day, we got started on the preparation for greeting the New Year in a fearful hurry. These days, the number of Japanese people having the thinking in which we formally greet the New Year may have decreased; in other words, the atmosphere in which people formally greet the New Year may have faded. On the other hand, a shrine or temple overflows with so many people during the three days of the New Year, and I think there are no Japanese people who don’t visit a shrine or temple during the New Year days.

* multi-tiered food box packed with osechi
** traditional Japanese food eaten during New Year Days
*** New Year decoration made of Japanese cedar tree branches put at the gate for calling in Shinto Gods
**** New Year decoration made of Japanese pain tree branches put at the gate for calling in Shinto Gods

I was hanging around Umeda on January 3rd. Hotel New Hankyu, which finally finished their operation of 60 years in this month, is a hotel full of memory for me. Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) displayed in show windows of Hankyu Department Store were amazing this year too! I went to Ohatsutenjin Shrine, and saw an immense crowd there. I’m also looking forward to the New Year decoration in Umeda Station of Hankyu railway Company every year. This year, I particularly focused on the Kadomatsu.