新年あけましておめでとうございます！

In Japan up until midnight December 31, we say “yoi o’toshi wo”(良いお年を) (Have a good New Year) which is the simple version of: Yoi otoshi o omukae kudasai （良いお年をお迎えください）

After midnight and for the next week, we say “Shinnen Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu” – ‘A New Year has opened, congratulations’ 新年開けましておめでとうございます！

Followed by “Kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu” ‘Please treat me kindly again this year’

Businesses close from about December 28 to January 4th ‘depending on how the day of the week falls’.

There are no wild parties on New Year’s eve. The thing to do is to visit a temple with huge throngs of other visitors.

As we watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV from a nice warm room, the Japanese televise the crowds decked out in their kimonos at Meiji Shrine.

At the shrine, there is the opportunity to pick up one’s official fortune and burn the important objects you picked up at the temple the previous year in a big bonfire.

The next day there is a New Year’s Day feast at home.

Temple visits continue for several days, you might hit one in Tokyo then a different one near your family’s home in another city.