One of the customs is bell ringing at the shrines. We were invited by a friend to go with them to a nearby shrine at midnight -- unfortunately, she called while we were at the mission conference and we didn't hear the voice mail until the next day, we were so disappointed! But at midnight on December 31st, Buddhist temples all over Japan ring their bells a total of 108 times to symbolize the 108 human sins in Buddhist belief, and to get rid of the 108 worldly desires -- they believe that ringing the bells can rid them of the sins they committed during the previous year. The bell is run 107 times before midnight and once past midnight. We're really sad we didn't get to go with them to the shrine (we came home from the mission conference exhausted and didn't stay up late), but I pirated some of their facebook pictures to share!
Maybe its just as well we weren't actually there -- these pictures are much better than what I would have taken. She obviously has a better camera and more skill! :-)
On New Year's Day, there is a tradition of getting up early to see the first sunrise of the new year. President Wada encouraged the missionaries to do that, and several of them did -- here's a collection of their pictures.
President Wada in the blue stocking cap.
These are all from their facebook posts -- this last is my favorite, because it's our elders here in Yokota -- Elders Guttierez, Dalton, Jennings, and Lunt, and in the center is a new convert who went with them for a morning walk and to see the sunrise. We love these guys!
We didn't see the sunrise ourselves, but shortly after went up on the roof and took pictures of Mount Fuji -- a crisp clear morning, and of course the pictures don't do it justice.
And here's a couple more pictures we took from the roof that morning.
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