日本語は後半にあります。
【English】
New Year’s Day was spent entirely at home — just eating meals or snacks, playing video games, or taking naps… the ultimate “sleeper’s New Year” (a popular Japanese way of spending the first few days of January relaxing at home without going out).
On the 2nd, we finally felt like getting out of the house, so we decided as a family to go do hatsumōde (the traditional first shrine/temple visit of the new year). We headed to Kanda Myojin shrine and then to Koami Shrine (小網神社), which we had visited back in January last year… but in the end, we couldn’t actually do hatsumōde!
The reason? Way too many people.
First we aimed for Kanda Myojin. We got off the subway at Shin-Ochanomizu Station and walked over. The closer we got to the shrine, the thicker the crowds became. And this is what it looked like right in front of the shrine.
The huge main street leading to the approach was already filled with an incredibly long line. To pray, you’d have to join this queue… but after seeing how long it was, we completely lost the motivation to wait.
So we gave up on hatsumōde at Kanda Myojin and walked back toward Akihabara, then took the subway to Ningyocho. Since Koami Shrine is much smaller than Kanda Myojin, we hoped we’d be able to pray there…
…but it was packed too!
What’s more, there were separate lines for “praying,” “money washing” (a ritual to cleanse coins/bills for good financial luck), and “buying amulets/omamori,” and all three lines were very long. The queue for omamori (protective charms) even stretched across a large pedestrian crossing to the other side — we couldn’t even see the end of it.
The “money washing” line looked relatively shorter, so we joined the back of that one and just washed some small change.
This statue ↓ is apparently meant to be stroked on the head while praying. Because so many people do it every day, only the head part is super smooth and shiny! Since we couldn’t properly pray this time, we decided to skip stroking it.
We figured most famous shrines in Tokyo were probably the same level of crowded, so we gave up on hatsumōde altogether. Instead, we went to Kitasenju and ate tebasaki (Nagoya-style fried chicken wings — crispy, glazed, and super tasty!) before heading home.
Even though we didn’t achieve our original goal, we walked a lot, the tebasaki was delicious, and overall it turned into a very satisfying day.
【Japanese】
元旦は一日中家におり、ご飯かオヤツか、ゲームか昼寝か… といった感じで、完全なる「寝正月」でした。
流石に2日目は外に出よう、ということで、家族で初詣に出かけることにしました。神田明神、そして昨年一月に訪れた小網神社へ行ったのですが、…結局、初詣、できませんでした！というのも、人が多過ぎたからです😭
まず最初に目指したのは神田明神。新御茶ノ水駅で地下鉄を降り、徒歩で向かいました。神社が近くなるにつれ、人通りが多くなります。そして神社の前はこの状態です。
参道前の大きな通りには、既に長蛇の列ができていました。お参りをするには、この列に並ばなければなりません。が、列の長さを見るととても並ぶ気にはなれず。
神田明神への初詣は諦めて、また歩いて秋葉原方面へ。地下鉄に乗って人形町で降りました。小網神社は神田明神と比べると小さな神社なので、こちらはお参りできるのではと期待しましたが…
小網神社もまた激混み！しかも、行列は「参拝」「銭洗い」「お守り」それぞれに分かれており、３つの列全てが長い。特に「お守り」購入のための列は大きな横断歩道の反対側にまで続いており、最後尾が見えないほどでした。
「銭洗い」の列が比較的短いように思えたので、その列の最後尾につき、小銭だけ洗わせてもらうことにしました。
この像↓は頭を撫で清めてお参りするものらしく、毎日多くの人に頭を撫でられているのでしょう、頭部だけがツルツルのピカピカ！私たちは今回参拝できなかったので、頭を撫でるのは控えておきましたが😅
都内の有名な神社はどこも似たような状態だろうということで、初詣は諦め、北千住で手羽先を食べて帰りました。目的は果たせなかったものの、よく歩いたし、手羽先は美味しかったし、満足のいく日となりました。
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