minako arisato (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
complementing) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
recolle2017-12-27 08:51 pm
complementing) wrote in recolle2017-12-27 08:51 pm
open || ring in the new year
WHO: YOU!
WHERE: Koyama Shrine and Tojimi Temple. I literally just made those up. Please assume they're one of the largest in the city.
WHEN: December 31st through the end of January, as well as one special coming-of-age event on January 14th!
WHAT: Celebrate the new year with everyone!
WARNINGS: None I can think of, let me know if this needs to be changed! BACKTAGGING IS ENCOURAGED.
I. THE COUNTDOWN AND NEW YEAR'S FESTIVAL
Main event: December 31st to January 1st;
Stalls: December 31st to the end of January
[Everywhere you look, people are in brightly colored kimonos, milling around the shrine and waiting for midnight. Don't worry about stumbling in the dark! Everything is lit by lanterns, and will continue to be even in the daytime, thanks to this month's odd lack of sunlight.
At any rate, there's plenty to do to kill time before the big event.
look around the stalls. There is cheap traditional festival food available, of course, like yakisoba, Japanese-style fried chicken, takoyaki and gyoza, grilled meat and seafood on sticks, okonomiyaki, cups of hot soup-- and that's just for dinner. There's also chocolate bananas, crepes, taiyaki, dango, and cotton candy. Hopefully you can taste all of it. And while Japan allows for drinking in public, America doesn't, so you better be drinking in designated areas and have a wristband on, OR ELSE.
for those who ate before coming, there's plenty of shopping to be done as well. Kimonos to rent, along with accessories, and various knick-knacks like festival masks, noise makers, and special Japanese crafts and fabrics.
or maybe you want to participate in some festival games. Try and catch some goldfish, do the ring toss, or pop one of the balloons on the backboard. The most dangerous game of all, of course, is the gatcha...pay money to pull a certain amount of paper slips from the box, and hope that one of them has a number for that thing on the shelf you really want. Don't worry, you'll always get a prize no matter what paper you pull! How nice that prize is, though, is up to the gatcha gods.
play the lottery wheel! And you thought it was the end of chance games. N o p e. For a small donation of two dollars (it all goes towards the upkeep of the shrine, promise!), you can try for a chance at the big prize: a giant kagami mochi to take home! Consolation prizes include omamori, or good luck charms, and tissue packs. Because you always can use tissues!
Once it gets closer to midnight, people will...start leaving the shrine. Imagine that! But no, it's because everyone is heading to the temple a five minute walk down the street, gathering near the building that houses the giant sacred bell. Get a smooch in if you want when the new year arrives, but after, it's time to line up to ring the bell. Take the chance to wish for good fortune in the new year, and hope that the bad karma of the last goes away! It's supposed to ring 108 times for symbolism, but don't worry, no matter how long the line is, they'll let everyone ring it once. Just get ready to wait for a while.
Done with that? Then it's back to the shrine with you! Now you can get back to your eating and shopping and games, but the staff have prepared everything else you need to do to finish off your first shrine visit of the year.
get in line to cleanse your hands at the water basin. There are no directions at this place, and other shrine goers seem to be walking right past it even after entering, so it's probably okay to skip it...? But if you watch other seasoned shrine goers carefully, you might figure out that you need to: scoop up water in a ladle with your right hand and pour water over your left hand, then do the reverse with the same ladleful of water, with the ladle with your left hand and pouring over your right. Some people also seem to be using the ladle to rinse out their mouths? But others aren't, so it's up to your character if they want to try.
get in line to pray at the main shrine. Once you approach the donation box, follow the directions on a helpful card on the side: toss a coin into the donation box, swing the long rope to ring the bell, bow twice, clap twice, pray to the gods, and then bow once before stepping to the side.
get in line to pull a fortune. For a small donation of one dollar, the shrine maiden will give you an aluminum container with one tiny hole in it. Shake it up, let one stick slide out, and then she'll give you a slip of paper that corresponds to the number on the stick. What omikuji did your character get? RNG to find out! 1 is best luck, 2 is great luck, 3 is good luck, 4 is average luck, 5 is half luck, 6 is small luck, 7 is bad luck, and 8 is w o r s t luck. It'll also have little blurbs and advice for various areas of your life, like business, school, love, family, and so on. If you have a bad fortune, tie it to the rack so that the bad luck doesn't leave the shrine with you!
get in line to have your shrine book stamped. Three dollars means one of the shrine calligraphers will write in your book and give you something like this. What purpose does this serve? ...none, really, unless you like collecting them as proof of how many shrines you've been. If you don't have a shrine book, you can buy one for ten dollars! It has an elegant, stylized image of a Recollé peach tree on the front.
get in line-- no, no line this time, but if you're looking for a quiet place to sit? The huge lantern lit garden in the back is a nice place to quietly ruminate about what you did in 2017, and what you hope to achieve in 2018.
If you can't make it on New Year's Day, that's no problem! The shrine is open the whole year round, so coming at a later date in January for hatsumode is okay. But you might come back a second time anyways, because...]
II. COMING OF AGE DAY
January 14th; Tojimi Temple
[The Sunday closest to January 15th is Coming of Age Day in Japan, where young adults at the age of 20 (or those who will become 20 relatively soon before the next Coming of Age Day) are formally acknowledged as legal adults. There's a lot of pomp and ceremony for those actual young adults that only family goes to, but you'll be able to see the spectacle that imitates a certain competition in Kyoto, where all the lady adults, in their extravagant kimonos, shoot arrows on the archery range in the back to see how far they can progress in the contest. It's more ritual than anything else, though actual experienced archers of all genders have their own competition. Maybe some of the horseback archers will make an appearance on the track too.
And where does that leave you? Well, aside from watching the contests, you can head to the other other archery range and shoot arrows too, of course! You don't have to be in a kimono to do it, though, if you don't want to be.]
III. WILDCARD
[Feel free to use this log for any other New Year shenanigans. Though remember, anyone exhibiting bad behavior will be ICly kicked out of the shrine and temple. If you have any questions, you can always find me at![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
raynestorm!]
WHERE: Koyama Shrine and Tojimi Temple. I literally just made those up. Please assume they're one of the largest in the city.
WHEN: December 31st through the end of January, as well as one special coming-of-age event on January 14th!
WHAT: Celebrate the new year with everyone!
WARNINGS: None I can think of, let me know if this needs to be changed! BACKTAGGING IS ENCOURAGED.
Akemashite omedetou! Happy New Year! If you're looking to celebrate in a traditional way, look no further than visiting Koyama Shrine and Tojimi Temple, one of Recollé's biggest and most popular religious sites. There's a variety of things to do throughout the first week of January, so why don't you come and visit? Pay your respects to the gods and pray for a good year.
I. THE COUNTDOWN AND NEW YEAR'S FESTIVAL
Main event: December 31st to January 1st;
Stalls: December 31st to the end of January
[Everywhere you look, people are in brightly colored kimonos, milling around the shrine and waiting for midnight. Don't worry about stumbling in the dark! Everything is lit by lanterns, and will continue to be even in the daytime, thanks to this month's odd lack of sunlight.
At any rate, there's plenty to do to kill time before the big event.
Once it gets closer to midnight, people will...start leaving the shrine. Imagine that! But no, it's because everyone is heading to the temple a five minute walk down the street, gathering near the building that houses the giant sacred bell. Get a smooch in if you want when the new year arrives, but after, it's time to line up to ring the bell. Take the chance to wish for good fortune in the new year, and hope that the bad karma of the last goes away! It's supposed to ring 108 times for symbolism, but don't worry, no matter how long the line is, they'll let everyone ring it once. Just get ready to wait for a while.
Done with that? Then it's back to the shrine with you! Now you can get back to your eating and shopping and games, but the staff have prepared everything else you need to do to finish off your first shrine visit of the year.
If you can't make it on New Year's Day, that's no problem! The shrine is open the whole year round, so coming at a later date in January for hatsumode is okay. But you might come back a second time anyways, because...]
II. COMING OF AGE DAY
January 14th; Tojimi Temple
[The Sunday closest to January 15th is Coming of Age Day in Japan, where young adults at the age of 20 (or those who will become 20 relatively soon before the next Coming of Age Day) are formally acknowledged as legal adults. There's a lot of pomp and ceremony for those actual young adults that only family goes to, but you'll be able to see the spectacle that imitates a certain competition in Kyoto, where all the lady adults, in their extravagant kimonos, shoot arrows on the archery range in the back to see how far they can progress in the contest. It's more ritual than anything else, though actual experienced archers of all genders have their own competition. Maybe some of the horseback archers will make an appearance on the track too.
And where does that leave you? Well, aside from watching the contests, you can head to the other other archery range and shoot arrows too, of course! You don't have to be in a kimono to do it, though, if you don't want to be.]
III. WILDCARD
[Feel free to use this log for any other New Year shenanigans. Though remember, anyone exhibiting bad behavior will be ICly kicked out of the shrine and temple. If you have any questions, you can always find me at
no subject
[It wasn't bad, or she was pretty sure it wasn't bad, just...confusing. And a little frustrating. And Yukiko's hand really did feel so warm in hers, like her palm was a little tiny heater, which was really nice. And they were holding hands, weren't they? When had they started doing that, it had to be recently, but it was nice and-]
[The bells finally rung, yanking Eleanor from her mess of thoughts, and she turned to watch as they bonged, once, twice...and something seemed to finally click in her brain, the hum gone as she turned just as Yukiko did.]
[But she didn't say anything, she just had a little smile on her face, an oddly confident one probably, as she leaned in...but it wasn't Yukiko's cheek that her lips found, it was her mouth. For a kiss.]
[And it wasn't a peck either. If Yukiko didn't pull back, this was a good few second affair, a real genuine kiss, that lasted until Eleanor's brain finally caught up to what had happened and unclicked, and she leaned back. From the flush on her cheeks and the shock in her eyes, she had clearly surprised herself with what she had just done.]
I...ah. [She sucked in a breath, her head dipping down, eyes slinking away.] H-Happy New Year, Yukiko.
[Oh jesus christ what had she just done...and why? The racing thoughts were certainly back.]
no subject
Oh.
Well.
Her eyes flicker when it's not cheek her lips meet. The soft warmth of their opposite, and the way it lingers, is just as nice. Probably nicer. It sets something spinning in the back of her thoughts, a swirl of emotion, but one that doesn't feel out of place. It doesn't really even register as something that is out of the ordinary. It just...is. And that's equally appropriate, to her.
She does not immediately pull back, but when she does she's smiling just as warmly as always. Gnarling her fingers up in Eleanor's, she tilts her head and happily proclaims:]
Happy New Year, Eleanor!
[And then her attention is immediately diverted by the crackling, popping sound of fireworks going off nearby...]
no subject
[She was quiet as the fireworks finally started and tugged the other's attention away from her, her hand tensing where it still held Yukiko's, but otherwise forcing herself to relax. Okay. That happened. And was nice? And maybe whatever had prompted it was a good thing. And-]
[Okay, shut up brain. She drew in a breath and let herself turn to watch the fireworks too, shoulder bumping against Yukiko's. Just enjoy the moment, Eleanor.]
[She could freak out tomorrow.]
no subject
But the kiss? Oh, she would remember that, and happily. For a long, long time.]