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On the second day of the new year, we went to the Hiei shrine in Akasaka to do hatsumode - a Japanese tradiiton to visit a shrine or temple to make the first prayer of the year. The shrine was packed with hundreds of worshipers.  We chose the Hiei shrine because we knew it would be much less crowded than the Meiji shrine, which receives more than three million worshipers during the New Years holiday.  We still had to get into a queue and wait forty five minutes for our turn.  There were many colorful snack stands that sold beer, sake, tako-yaki, okonomiyaki - Japanese style pancakes filled with cabbage, meat and octopus. We bought some tea to keep ourselves warm.  After the worship,  my nine year old nephew Hayato wanted to get an o-mikuji, a written oracle that predicts your luck. We each bought one.  My sister Fuyuko got "Kichi" which means good luck. Hayato got "Chukichi" which is one notch luckier than good luck.  I pulled a "Daikichi" which is the highest luck you can get with an omikuji.  I don't really count on charms and amulets but I didn't mind improving my odds of making this year a good luck year. The omikuji had a lot written on it, starting with an old poem which insinuated how things will go for me. Old and young branches will both give plenty of blooms, it said, but it also warned what can go wrong if I didn't act with modesty.  I folded the oracle and put it in my wallet.