This Week in Tokyo and Osaka – 3 January 2023

Happy New Year from Maction Planet! Wishing a prosperous 2023 to all our tour guests and content consumers, full of everything you desire, from the World’s Greatest Metropolis. Check out some shots of New Year celebrations in Japan in the first ‘This Week in Tokyo (and Osaka) of 2023!

Featured image – Rabbit season: It’s the year of the rabbit in the Japanese Zodiac, so expect lots of bunny imagery and merchandise for the next couple of months at least, and indeed the whole year. Here’s a Rabbit design Goshuin from the Kikuna Shrine in Yokohama!

Monchhichi New Year: Mochhichi, the world-famous stuffed toy created by Yoshiharu Washino for the Sekiguchi Corporation, first released in 1974, is out and about making people smile at Shin-Koiwa in East Tokyo.

Royal Park Kazaridaru: You often see decorative stacks of empty sake barrels at Shinto shrines, especially around New Year. This is called kazaridaru – kazari (飾り) means decoration and taru (樽) means barrel.

Hotels often get in on the action too. This one comes from the Royal Park Hotel in Suitengumae and features barrels from Ozeki.

New Otani Ikebana 2023: This stunning sight is what greeted you in the main lobby of the New Otani Hotel over the new year period. Again, sake barrels have been featured, this time from the legendary Hakutsuru Sake Brewery from the Nada region of Kobe.

Like last year, this Oshogatsu (New Year) Ikebana arrangement is by Tetsunori Kawana from the Sogetsu-Ryu school. And like last year, the photo does not do it justice!

No Limit with TDR: Meanwhile, over in Osaka, our good friend Chris, the legendary TDR Explorer, was ringing in the New Year at Universal Studios Japan during their “No Limit! Count Down 2023” event, which featured Super Nintendo World, Peanuts, Hello Kitty, ONE PIECE, Sesame Street, HamiKuma and more! Live vicariously through his fantastic video above – fun for all the family!

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