For New Year’s I went to Hie Shrine in Akasaka. The stairs up to the shrine ground is so steep there’re escalators by the main torii:
From the second escalator I could see the sign with the name of the shrine and the kanji “Hatsumoude” (= New Year’s visit to a shrine).
If you bought a hamaya (the kanji literally mean “destroy-evil-arrow”), an arrow-shaped good luck charm, the shrine maidens danced a kagura to bring in good fortune, with the hamaya in hand. Note that the shrine maidens are holding a kagura bell with their right hand.
The shrine was also giving out omiki. I put a 100-yen coin in the offering box, took a white sake cup, and the shrine maiden poured some sake in it.
The shinshi here are monkeys, so there’s a statue on the right of the hall of worship:
And on the left. This one’s a mother monkey, holding her baby:
The monkey statues are husband-and-wife.
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