Quiet Kyoto New Year

Nobody does new year celebrations like the Philippines. 

Here, cars drive around the neighborhood blowing their horns,  kids are given noisemakers with instructions to use them with all their might once midnight strikes, adults shoot homemade canons to create noise, and people start drinking far too early for their own good. And when it comes to the firecrackers and fireworks---well I am not joking when I say we blow too much of these up that the first thing we do when we wake up the following morning is to clean our nostrils that have been blackened from all the smoke. 

Being used to this insanity--because that's really what it is---it was quite a shock to the system to see how Japan rings in the new year.

Well, "ring in" might not be the proper term here.  "Ring in" connotes some form of celebration, of revelry, but new year in Japan is welcomed in a much more reverent and solemn manner, with many trooping to shrines on the first few days of January to offer their prayers and wish for good health and fortune in the upcoming year. 

I remember walking around Kyoto on the last day of the year and being surprised that many business establishments were shut down, tourists destinations were closed, and the crowd one usually associates with this popular city was nowhere to be scene. It was something a girl who grew up in the Philippines never expected welcoming the new year to be: quiet.

people wrote their wishes on paper then tied them here

food stalls start setting up outside shrines on new year's eve to cater to those who will visit the shrine early in the morning.