🇯🇵New Year Kyushu to Hokkaido doing all the Japanese traditions 🙏 2025
🇯🇵2025 Japanese New Year! Doing the local traditions, sun to snow, traveling from the far south Fukuoka Kyushu to the far north Sapporo Hokkaido. I keep filming horizontally I apologize it’s best on mobile.
🐍Year of the snake. I’m not sure when Japan adopted the Western New Year to celebrate away from the lunar calendar of most Asian countries. But it’s more a day for family, visiting & praying at temples, and not really a crazy party day like most of the world.
🇯🇵 Before leaving Kyushu, stopped by a 806 AD Buddhist Temple and 757 AD Shinto Shrine Japanese Tradition to pray for the new year on Dec. 31. Cool to get some history in Fukuoka on a quick visit.
✈️Dec 31 flights were cheap so headed on 2 hour trip up to the cold north, I don’t like flying already and was a little more nervous than usual because of recent Korean tragedy.
❄️But made it to the snowy land and our host was kind enough to pick us up at the airport and also to stop by another Japanese tradition to have a spread of food while watching a Japanese New Years special variety show on Dec. 31.
🥃We did a little Western style on our own back at the home celebrate with drinks watching the show until the countdown. Then 3rd Japanese New Year tradition is visiting a Shinto shrine around midnight to again pray for the new year that we trekked through the snow to do.
❄️New Years snowy day. Last Japanese tradition is to eat a cold symbolic food box Oseshi on New Years morning. A time of rest and no cooking allowed the first few days around New Year. Most businesses are closed. But we hopped on the snow train from our little town to explore the big city Sapporo for the day in the snow New Years Day.
😁 A memorable one, the travel & experiences of two totally separate regions of Japan. Thanks to all the supporters out there, hope everyone else has a blessed and amazing year.