Japanese people traditionally take a short vacation over the New Year holidays. The holidays usually start from December 29th and end on January 3rd in the next year. I planned to take a vacation this season as well. Actually, I went to my wife’s parents’ home in Wakayama and stayed there.
I went to the Ise Shrine to celebrate the start of the year 2011. The place was like a sanctuary, and much remains the same probably since a long time ago. It was a nice sightseeing trip. One regrettable thing was that I had an only limited time during the stay in the Shrine. I had only one and a half hours there, so that I had no other time except to visit the main building. There were many other accessory (or secondary) buildings and a lot of space where I could feel relaxed. There was serenity and many natural elements in the Ise Shrine. I want to take the next opportunity to visit the Shrine again in the future.
Except for the short trip, I was in front of my laptop PC almost all of the time during the stay in Wakayama. I had several tasks which had to be done by the first business day of the year 2011. My mother-in-law said that “Oh, you have to be engaged in your job even on your vacation, haven’t you? How hard your work is.” I wanted to explain why I had to work in the home, but, since it was a little complex, I gave up making the explanation.
The year 2010 was over, and the New Year started. My New Year’s Resolution is to live in harmony with myself. In the 2010, I sometimes experienced nearly to lose my mental and/or physical balances. In some time, reasons of the imbalances originated from my work. Continuous overwork and strong pressures caused me anxiety. In other times, the causes were related to my private life. I want to reduce the occurrences of such negative emotion in this year. I want to keep serenity and good harmony inside me like an atmosphere prevailing in the Ise Shrine. I hope that the year 2011 will be a good year for you and me.
Living in harmony with yourself sounds like a great New Year resolution. I haven't decided my New Year resolution yet...it becomes almost like deciding it is the first New Year resolution to me. I hope the year is harmonious for you.
ReplyDeleteI really like Ise Shrine, by the way. I am from Aichi, so I used to visit there with my family often. It's a really beautiful place. Though I am not very religious, still I feel something is there in the Shrine.
Thank you for your comment. Probably, I will forget my New Year’s Resolution soon. However, when the year 2011 ends, I will remember the Resolution then. I hope that I will be able to conclude that I can satisfy the Resolution during the 2011.
ReplyDeleteMy hometown is Kanagawa, so I used to go to the Tsurugaoka-Hachimangu in Kamakura with my family. Both Shrines have something which cannot be easily expressed by sentences. Probably, history makes its difference.