i decided that a familiar american coffee chain was exactly what i needed to cure my sluggish new years day morning. first stop: starbucks. next stop: hatsumoude..

taken on the 1st day of the new year, tokyo (東京)

__hatsumoude (初詣)__
hatsumoude (初詣) is the first shrine or temple visit of the new year. this is a big deal for many japanese people. it is almost expected that within the first couple days of january everyone will visit a shrine with their family or close friends and pray for another good year. after a delicious but overpriced caffeinated wake-up, i decided to head to meiji jingu (明治神宮) to start my new year off right.

the torii (鳥居) leading to meiji jingu (明治神宮)

unsurprisingly, this was the same exact idea that thousands upon thousands of japanese people had as well. i later found out it was estimated that between two and three million people visited meiji jingu during the first three days of january. i waded through crowds and waited in lines that would have made disneyland seem like child's play. ha.

i believe the proper description for this is "hella crowded", meiji jingu (明治神宮)

when i finally got inside i did the customary shinto ritual i saw everyone else do: i threw a coin in with the other donations, bowed, clapped twice, and bowed again. i didnt actually pray for anything because i believe in science, so instead i cautioned myself not to fuck up this year as much as the last.

__odaiba (お台場)__
after the maddeningly busy shrine, my friend sold me on exploring this artificial island called odaiba (お台場). so we hopped a couple of trains, crossed the rainbow bridge, and arrived at one of the most scenic views ive seen in tokyo so far.

the rainbow bridge (レインボーブリッジ) and a statue of liberty (自由の女神) replica, odaiba (お台場)

in japanese, the statue of liberty is jiyuu no megami zou (自由の女神像) which literally means "the goddess of freedom statue." im sorry, english speakers, but the goddess of freedom is sooooo much more bad-ass than the statue of liberty. point: japan.

i am totally partial to how mysteriously emo this looks, odaiba (お台場)

the rainbow bridge (レインボーブリッジ), along with the star road i saw the night before made me feel like mario kart was totally real and that i was living inside a video game the last few days. but then again, japan does have that effect on me a lot.

on the roof of a 9-story shopping mall was a small shrine

there was an exciting looking shopping mall right next to our train stop so we spent a couple of hours checking it out. two highlights were seeing a small shrine on the roof of that 9-story mall and finding a stitch (スティッチ) that was almost bigger than me.

the biggest stitch (スティッチ) ever

__post-adventure reflections__
after odaiba i headed back to the hostel to chill, pack up, and prepare myself for the 6 hour trip back to kihoku (紀北) that i was not looking forward to doing the next day. after a bit of reflecting, i would like to thank tokyo for being so awesome. though osaka (大阪) still has my heart, i was surprised to see that tokyo definitely gave it a run for its money. oh, how i miss big cities. bye for now, tokyo - i hope to see you again real soon.