After a leisurely New Years Day breakfast and coffee, we made the trek out to Asakusa to join the other million or so temple-goers to visit Sensoji, one of my fave temples. I've always avoided such New Years Day activities out of fear of crowds, but you know what?! It was a lovely day - full of amazing sights and sounds, and truly, the Japanese are masters at keeping it cool in often overwhelming crowds. No flaring tempers, just an electric, happy vibe. The way Sensoji is laid out made it easy to negotiate the crowds and get great photos without actually having to stand in the main line into the temple. The side areas were all laid out with stalls selling New Years paraphernalia and food and had a great atmosphere.

We were feeling pretty confident after negotiating the massive crowds for a few hours there so we decided to hit Meiji Jingu in Harajuku after that - arriving there just on sunset. Again, a beautiful atmosphere, full of excitement but no jostling or pushing and shoving at all. Amazing really when you consider the sheer numbers of people involved. Seriously millions in a day. I shit you not. It was cool to walk down the long gravel avenue with such a cross section of Japanese - families in traditional dress, young punks and goth-lolita types, cooler-than-cool dudes, stylin' chicks, old people, kids, couples, tourists - everyone heading in the same direction, to do the same thing: pray for the new year, in this electric atmosphere. Quite special really.

The day was also exciting for me because I got to shoot the whole thing on borrowed lenses: a Sigma 24 - 70 MM 2.8 and a Canon 10 -22 MM 3.5, and I decided to test my new software and shoot in RAW format for the first time ever. I'm pretty happy with the results and am relieved to realise that it's not my camera that is crappy - it's just the lens I've been using. I'm kinda shocked that Canon would ship such an inferior lens as part of their Kiss/Rebel kit! Anyway, You can see more photos at the New Years Day 2007 photoset at Flickr.

And all the best to you all for a great 2007.

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