Winter Traditions and New Year Celebrations

In Japan, the New Year is a very important holiday! Many celebrations and ceremonies take place within the few weeks before and after the New Year. Check out what I did to celebrate the New Year.

Location: 
Tokyo, Japan

Photos

One winter tradition is making "mochi", or Japanese rice cakes, by pounding rice until it turns into something like dough
Here, a man cooks rice to make mochi. Have you ever eaten mochi?
With the right mallet size, even children can pound mochi!
Mochi can be seasoned into a sweet or savory dish... here's four kinds of mochi served with vegetable soup
On New Year's Eve, I went to Zojoji Temple, which has a great view of Tokyo Tower
The big bell in the background is rung 108 times starting at midnight... we had tickets to ring six of the times, and it's so big that it took six of us!
Each person takes hold of one of the six pieces of rope attached to the suspended log, and then two monks call out commands to pull on the rope and ring the bell
The big bell at Zojoji Temple

Pages

Videos