Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Coming of Age holiday in Tokyo

Last Monday was a national holiday in Japan celebrating the Coming of Age when all those who have reached  20 years old are congratulated for getting to the age of majority ( i.e.   late "bar-mitzva"). The  young women use long sleeves kimonos and men prefer a western suit gathering  in groups commemorating this special event.

This event happens every year on the second Monday in January since 714 A.D., but this time it happened under a strong snow storm that disrupted completely the traffic and most of the parties in Tokyo and the rest of Japan.















(by Yuya Shino / Reuters)



Hoping to see these specially dressed young people we went to Sensoji, also known as Asakusa Kannon Temple, that is one of the most popular Buddhist temples in Tokyo.


After getting soaked taking these pictures and completely frozen, we ran to the first restaurant to get a hot tea. At the doorstep, some Filipino tourists urged us to taste the "melon bread" that was indeed  fluffy, sweet and delicious.



























Click on the picture at the bottom to access all the photos from this album. Select the first picture and then click on the "Full Screen" button  to better enjoy these "amazing" pictures.


1 comment:

Beatrix (Tervuren) said...

beautiful, all those colorful kimono's.
I just don't know about the victory-sign...?