Hatsumode, First Shrine Visit of New Year in Japan [iPhone 4S/HD]

For many Japanese, the first thing to do at the start of a year is hatsumode. People visit a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple and make a wish for the coming year. Some of them do that as soon as the year changes. If you would like to worship at a famous shrine or a temple, you have to get in a line for several hours at the mid-winter midnight. Even at the small shrine near my place, every year, the precincts are filled with old and young and the line of worshippers continues to the street outside.