Happy New Year 2025! Let’s make this year a good one.
I visited a shrine near my residence. I will talk about it freely.
The ‘first visit’ to a shrine
I like to visit shrines. They are quiet and peaceful. In addition, praying to something makes me remember my honest mind and allows me to live naturally.
In Japanese tradition, people visit a shrine as a ‘first visit’ on New Year’s Day.
Usually, I avoid it because it is crowded. However, this was my first time to experience this area’s first visit, so I went today, on New Year’s Day.
The shrine I visited was called Nada Shrine, which was near my residence. Perhaps this shrine is a little famous one. It is an unusual shrine located right next to the sea. It is a beautiful location with amazing scenery, as shown in the above picture. (I took that picture.)
Fortunately, there were few people. I was able to pray calmly.
Imagining an old era
By the way, at these shrines, we can sometimes have a drink made from rice called Amazake for free on New Year’s Day. Although this shrine was not provided with it, I often remember it on this day.
The taste of the drink was always terrible for me. It tastes like hot rice with sugar and a little sourness. Perhaps you can imagine how it tastes. Compared to modern soft drinks, it is much worse.
However, if I imagine the scenery of an old era, I can enjoy it. Perhaps this is because we can change the environment we belong to with our images.
In the old era, there was no sugar. People in that era, especially children, who liked sweetness seldom could taste sweet food. However, the rice drink had sweetness. They fermented rice with special bacteria, and the bacteria turned rice starch into sugar. People made sweetness with their creativity.
Enjoying the image of the environmental change
In such an environment, the sweetness must have felt so tasty. This imagination allows us to enjoy it. We don’t judge based on modern soft drinks.
In other words, perhaps we can enjoy many things if we change our environments and premises. If we go to a place with less sugar, we might enjoy those sweet foods, like the rice drink, even if we feel bad taste right now.
It tells us we might need to not be so afraid to change our environment as long as it is in line with our direction in life. We can adapt to a new state. Even if we have less sugar, there may be another in abundance.
Conclusion
That was my feeling of the new year.
I am going to go toward more independence while balancing my mental duality. That is my current direction in life.
Let’s create our futures!
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
