Hiroshima - Hatuhinode
New Year’s Day is far and away the most important holiday in Japan. Activities undertaken on January 1st are thought to have repercussions throughout the coming year. Most Japanese will visit a shrine or temple shortly after New Year’s, many at the stroke of midnight, to pray for renewed prosperity.Another common tradition is Hatsu Hinode, the viewing of the sunrise on the first morning of the new year. Weather forecasts on New Year’s Eve give the time of sunrise for those setting their alarms, but many people don’t sleep at all. On beaches and mountaintops across the country, huge numbers of Japanese gather to await dawn. In Hiroshima, Mt. Misen on Miyajima is a favorite spot for people who have made their first prayers at Itsukushima Jinja. Through the night, college girls huddle in the cold in their miniskirts, little boys fervently whisper their hopes for piles of New Year’s gift money, and amateur cameramen deploy enormous lenses and tripods to photograph the rising sun. Often the sun never shows at all through the winter cloud cover over the sea, but it’s the effort and fellowship that count on this first morning of the year.
More Info.(Hiroshima):
Hiroshima Castle
Shukkeien
Onomichi City
Fukuyama Castle
Fukuyama Rose Festival
Hanagasa
Hanadaue
Hiroshima City
Atomic Bomb Dome
Mihara Yassa Festival
Onomichi Hanabi
Hatsuhinode
