The Last Picture of the Year

It was a freezing night. Snow all across Japan, flights and trains were cancelled and the country nearly came to a complete standstill. It seems like everybody goes to visit the shrine on New Year's Eve, so the Tsuji family took me to Ise-jingu to pray in the New Year. They were so worried that I'd be cold so they gave me two jumpers to put on over my long-sleeve top and cardigan, and I was so puffed up that I could barely put my arms by my side. I felt like the abominable snowman.

The shrine is situated in the middle of the woods, its a good two miles walk into the holy grounds to get to it, crossing several bridges on the way. The Shinto attendants, dressed in beautiful starch white robes, manned the huge camp-fires in the grounds to keep everybody warm, and to let people cook their rice cakes near the fire, which is a really popular tradition here.

We got to the entrance of the shrine, climbed the stone steps leading up to the gates, and waited for our turn to chuck a coin over the stone wall and to say our prayers. There's a special way of doing this. First, you throw your coin into the pool, clap your hands twice and then bow to the shrine. Finally, you'd say your prayer.

There were loads of people coming to the shrine, so we had to leave quickly to let other people have their turn. We joined the camp-fires, everybody was standing with their backs to the flame to warm their bums so we gave that a try too. Then, we cooked some rice cakes and shared them out. Rice cakes symbolises good fortune, so eating them at New Year will encourage good fortune to come your way for the entire year.