After the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, the joya no kane bell-ringing ceremony commences with 108 ringing peels at shrines and temples across Japan. Meanwhile, masses of visitors wil ...

Japan’s unique relationship to faith is on full display during the final week of the year: People celebrate Christmas with an exchange of presents, ring Buddhist temple bells on New Year’s Eve ...

Postal workers in a western Japanese city delivered New Year's greeting cards in a neighborhood near a famous temple on Tuesday, one day before crowds jam the area. It is a time-honored tradition ...

Tips for Taking Kids to Shrines During Hatsumode Typically, people in Japan will visit a shrine or temple within the first three days of the new year. In some parts of western Japan, like Fukuoka ...

Although parties and countdown events aren't as popular in Japan as in Western countries (think of New Year's Eve in Japan as akin to Christmas ... If you're out and about, you'll hear lots of bells.

A 16 th century bronze bell rang 108 times on Sunday during a celebration of the Japanese New Year at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum. The sounding of the 2,100-pound bell, from a temple in Tajima ...