First Snow in Tokyo

Finally it snowed in Tokyo today. I suppose it was the first time in this winter. However the weather forecast these days said that it would snow in Tokyo, it didn’t at all.

I managed to take some pictures of Tokyo’s snow view on the way to my office, but they didn’t convince me so I’ll post the picture I took at home.

My first Yoga in 8 months

Last Sunday I went to a yoga lesson. I started yoga just 2 years ago but it hurt my back and I gave it up last May. I don’t need to pay the admission fee nor a monthly fee for my studio - just a class fee when I drop in. In addition, I can use all the associated studios around Tokyo and each of them have pretty nice facilities (except the narrow changing rooms). So I’m satisfied with them overall.

This time I joined a class named “Relax” and the class, as its name suggests, aims to use stretching exercises to relieve your stressful mind. This meant that the yoga positions weren’t so difficult. Thankfully I could work out better than I thought even though this was my first yoga lesson in 8 months (but now, as of Monday, I have muscle aches in my back and upper arms).

However, he studio was packed full of about 50 people and that meant there was just 10 cm between the people next to me…is this a kind of “Relax” situation!? I don’t believe it so far.

I know the studio has become popular these days so the number of members is getting larger and larger, and now I have to be very careful not to hit someone behind me with my leg or my arm. I don’t like to do yoga nervously.

Well, I’m going to have to find a new studio soon.

Praying at a Buddhist temple

I usually pray for annual good luck at the same shrine (as I mentioned before), but this year I had to go to a Buddhist temple in Kawasaki city (next to Tokyo) to take my old fortune slip back there. So I made up my mind to pray there too. You may wonder whether it is ok to pray to both the Japanese ancient gods and Buddha but I think it’s no problem because for Japanese Praying on New Year’s Day is like an expression of our appreciation for others (not only the god, and Buddha but also people around me).

The temple is called “Kawasaki-daishi”, whose name comes from the city name. This temple is so huge and famous that a lot of people pray there every year. This is the main gate of the temple.

And here is a view from inside of the gate. Though New Year’s holidays were over (generally New Year’s holidays is January 1st to 3rd), it was so crowded.

This is the people behind me who are also waiting to pray…

After that, I returned my old fortune slip successfully. When we return fortune slips to a temple (or a shrine) we usually tie it to a rope which is prepared by the temple. I failed to take that picture regrettably but anyway, I achieved my aim.

The outcome of the gods’ looking after…

Despite having had lots of things to do at the end of 2007, I have NO really exciting plans for the New Year holidays after going to the shrine as usual.

Some women might have queued up to buy lucky bags before dawn from Japanese stores. Anyway, we must queue up wherever we go in New Year’s holidays but I’d rather buy what I really want. But I remembered what I needed on Jan. 3^rd, so I went out shopping.

Actually what I needed were 2 extension cords and a new hair brush so I went to LOFT to buy a brush first. LOFT is a commodities store in the SEIBU department store in Tokyo, which deals with various kinds of import goods and fine products.

When I paid for the brush at the checkout counter, the checkout person gave me a scratchcard which was available from Jan. 1^st to Jan. 3^rd. for the so called New Year’s lottery(but surprisingly the store was closed on Jan. 1^st so actually it was available for just 2 days!!)

The outcome was hidden by a silver panel, so I should scratch it with a coin or something. I scratched it there and found I won the 3^rd prize!! That was a bath powder.

Actually there are 100,000 3^rd prizes in total. Anyway, this is the first good luck for me in 2008 so I’m pleased to get it.

How to spend New Year Day

Despite having had lots of things to do at the end of 2007, I have no exciting plan for the New Year holidays. Just one plan was already decided - that I go to a shrine close to my house and pray for good in 2008 . This is a routine event – “Hatsu-mode” in Japanese - not only for my family but for every Japanese family. So my mother and I went out for “Hatsu-mode” on midday Jan.1st.

On “Hatsu-mode”, we must queue up to pray wherever we go, like this.


Although the weather forecast said this New Year holidays would be freezing Tokyo has been fine and not so cold during the last couple of days. In addition, we went there earlier than other people so the queue was relatively short and we only had to stand for about 20 min.


I prayed for 2008’s good and our healthy life (not only my family but also my friends) to the gods. Basically the shrine I went seems to worship 5 gods. I suppose 3 of them are a family(a husband, his wife and their son) but I’m afraid I don’t know the rest of them. Anyway these 5 gods will look after me, my family and my friends all this year.