Many Japanese people visit shrines and temples on New Year’s Day or early January.
This is called “Hatsumode” which means first visit to the shrine/temple. Normally people are supposed to go to the one near where they live but some people go to shrines and temples that are very well-known. Meiji Jingu Shrine in Shibya Ward, Tokyo is very famous, for example and every year 3 million people are said to go there. Narita is known as the location of Tokyo New International Airport but there is a famous temple called “Shinshoji” in the city of Narita and a large number of people go there. This year, however, people are trying to avoid the spread of COVID-19, and these places were much less crowded this year.
