If you’re landing in Japan between December 29th and January 3rd, the single decision that will shape your whole trip is which shrine you queue at, and at what hour. Meiji Jingu alone pulls roughly 3 million visitors through its torii gates during the first three days of January, and the line from the Harajuku Station entrance can stretch for 40 minutes to an hour between midnight and 2am on January 1st. Go instead on the afternoon of January 2nd or 3rd and you’ll wait 10-15 minutes. That single scheduling choice is the difference between an exhausting ordeal and an actually pleasant hatsumode (first shrine visit of the year).
Tokyo: Meiji Jingu, Zojoji, and the Midnight Bell
Meiji Jingu sits a one-minute walk from JR Harajuku Station (Yamanote Line) or three minutes from Meiji-Jingumae Station on the Chiyoda and Fukutoshin lines. The shrine itself never closes its gates on New Year’s, and stalls selling amazake (sweet sake, about ¥300-500 a cup) and grilled mochi line the approach path through the forest. For something quieter but still atmospheric, Zojoji Temple near Tokyo Tower holds joya no kane, the ringing of the temple bell 108 times just before and after midnight on December 31st, symbolizing the 108 earthly desires in Buddhist belief. It’s a five-minute walk from Onarimon Station on the Mita Line, and unlike Meiji Jingu it’s genuinely possible to stand near the bell and watch monks take turns striking it.
A Tokyo Day-Trip Alternative: Narita-san Shinshoji
If you’re flying out of Narita anyway, Narita-san Shinshoji Temple is worth building a half-day around. It’s a 10-minute walk from Keisei Narita Station along Omotesando, a street lined with eel restaurants (unagi is the local specialty here, around ¥2,500-3,500 for a set meal) that stay open through the holiday. The temple draws nearly 3 million New Year visitors itself, but because it’s spread across wide temple grounds rather than one narrow approach, it never feels as bottlenecked as central Tokyo shrines.
Kyoto: Yasaka Shrine’s Fire Ritual and Fushimi Inari at Dawn
Kyoto does New Year’s differently from Tokyo, and Yasaka Shrine in Gion is the clearest example. On the night of December 31st it hosts okera mairi, where visitors light a rope wick from a sacred fire and carry the smoldering ember home, swinging it gently to keep it lit, to use for lighting the New Year’s first cooking fire. It’s a genuinely local ritual, not a tourist spectacle, and you’ll see as many grandmothers in coats over pajamas as young couples in kimono. The shrine is a 5-minute walk from Gion-Shijo Station on the Keihan Line.
Fushimi Inari Taisha, famous for its thousands of vermillion torii gates, is open 24 hours year-round and charges no admission, which makes it one of the few major sites where arriving at 5am on January 2nd genuinely works, you’ll have long stretches of the gate tunnels to yourself before the day-trippers arrive around 9am. It’s two minutes from JR Inari Station, a five-minute ride from Kyoto Station on the JR Nara Line.
Osaka: Sumiyoshi Taisha’s Reed-Thatched Gate
Sumiyoshi Taisha in southern Osaka is consistently one of the Kansai region’s three most-visited shrines over New Year’s, alongside Yasaka and Fushimi Inari, yet it barely registers with foreign visitors. Its taiko-bashi, a steeply arched red bridge, becomes a photo bottleneck on January 1st-2nd, so cross it on the way in and take the side path on the way out. It’s a two-minute walk from Sumiyoshi-Taisha Station on the Nankai Main Line, about 20 minutes from Namba.
Dazaifu Tenmangu, Fukuoka: Exam Season Starts at New Year’s
Dazaifu Tenmangu in Fukuoka Prefecture is dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane, the deity of scholarship, and the first week of January is when students across Kyushu come to pray for exam success ahead of entrance exam season in February and March. The pedestrian approach (Dazaifu Omotesando) is lined with shops selling umegae-mochi, a grilled rice cake with sweet bean paste (around ¥150 each), which is the thing to eat while you wait in line. The shrine is a five-minute walk from Dazaifu Station on the Nishitetsu Dazaifu Line, reached via a transfer at Nishitetsu Futsukaichi, roughly 30 minutes from Fukuoka’s Tenjin district.
Ise Jingu: The Shrine the Emperor Visits
Ise Jingu, split into the Outer Shrine (Geku) and Inner Shrine (Naiku), is considered the most spiritually important Shinto site in Japan, dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. It draws over a million visitors in the first three days of January and the surrounding town of Ise, accessed via the Kintetsu Line to Ujiyamada or Iseshi Station (roughly 1 hour 20 minutes from Nagoya), essentially shuts down everything except shrine-related commerce for the holiday. Okage Yokocho, the old town street near Naiku, stays open and is where to try Akafuku mochi, a local sweet sold since the Edo period, for about ¥270 per serving.
Cold-Weather Practicalities Nobody Mentions
Hatsumode queues move slowly and you’ll be standing outside for 30-90 minutes in temperatures that regularly drop to 0-5°C in Tokyo and Kyoto overnight, colder in Kyoto’s basin due to radiational cooling. Disposable kairo hand and body warmers (sold at any convenience store for ¥50-150) are not optional gear here, they’re what everyone around you will be using. Wear boots with actual grip; shrine approach paths are often unpaved gravel or stone that gets slick with overnight frost.
Trains run on a special late-night schedule on December 31st into January 1st in Tokyo and Osaka, called shogatsu daiya, with lines like the Yamanote and Chuo running trains through the night roughly every 15-20 minutes instead of stopping at the usual last-train time around midnight. Outside that one night, assume normal last trains around 12:30am and budget for a taxi or a long wait if you’re out later.
What to Eat Around the Shrines
Toshikoshi soba, eaten on the night of December 31st, is meant to be eaten before midnight, the long noodles symbolize a long life and the easy bite symbolizes cutting away the hardships of the past year. Many standing soba shops near major stations, like the ones inside JR Tokyo Station’s Gransta concourse, sell a simplified version for around ¥500-700 that December 31st evening. Osechi ryobi, the New Year’s bento of preserved dishes eaten over the first three days, is sold pre-made at department stores like Takashimaya or Isetan from mid-December, with boxes ranging from roughly ¥10,000 for a two-person set to ¥50,000+ for elaborate multi-tier versions, convenient if you’re staying in a hotel room with no kitchen.
One Thing to Plan Around
Here’s the part that catches first-time visitors off guard: a large percentage of restaurants, small shops, and even some museums close entirely from January 1st through 3rd, sometimes longer, with hand-written signs reading shogatsu yasumi (New Year’s holiday). This isn’t a minor inconvenience in smaller cities like Nara or Kanazawa, where you might walk ten minutes before finding anywhere open for lunch on January 2nd. Convenience stores (7-Eleven, Lawson, FamilyMart) stay open and are genuinely your most reliable food source during these three days, and hotel breakfast becomes worth paying for even if you’d normally skip it. Book accommodation with at least a basic breakfast included if your trip falls squarely on January 1st-3rd, and don’t assume you can wing dinner plans the way you could in any other week of the year.
Photo by Lauza Loistl on Unsplash