New Year in Japan

We spent the New Year in Japan. It has been many years since I last spent New Year in Japan, but it was nice being able to get into the routine, watching the singing competition on New Year's Eve known as Kouhaku 紅白 and waking up on New Year's Day to the Japanese version of New Year food, which is mostly preserved food (so that people don't have to cook and can rest during the holiday).
Then there is the traditional visit to the temple. We usually go to Kawasaki Taishi 川崎大師 (this is a Shinto shrine in Kawasaki), and this year was no different. My fortune for the year, according to the lot that I drew, is supposed to be good. And of course, stalls were set up within and without the temple compound, and we had a great time eating mash potatoes with butter, fried noodles and large hot dogs.

For those who don't know, when the Japanese decided to adopt the Gregorian calendar, they copied the dates from the Chinese lunar calendar over, so instead of celebrating new year with the Chinese using the lunar calendar, they do it with the rest of the world now on 1st of January.