The Year of the Horse

The new year is suitably seasonal in Kyoto. Temperatures around freezing, sunny with a chance of snow sprinkles.

On New Year’s Eve, I attended the Joya no Kane, the midnight bellringing at Chion-in. It’s famous because of the size of their bell and the fact that they use 17 monks to ring it. They broadcast the annual ceremony on YouTube too. I think this was the first year they tried to manage the crowds by charging admission, requiring advance reservations, and dividing the crowd into four sessions. My group was the fourth, and we clicked into the new year while watching the bell ringing. It was nice.

They ring it 108 times (once for each of the evil desires we suffer from on earth) to purify us for the new year. The monks were still ringing the bell as we were ushered out into the frigid night. There were quite a few people milling about in Maruyama Park, eating snacks from the vendors there.

Maruyama Park is just above Yasaka Jinja, one of the most famous shrines in Kyoto. So I thought I could visit the shrine – still open after midnight – on the way back home. But alas, shrine access was blocked - even for pedestrians. The only access was from the west gate facing Shijo Dori street, the most famous entrance. I guess it must have been quite crowded.

Cold after several hours in near freezing temperatures, I decided instead to find a taxi for the ride back home, as the trains stop at midnight. After more walking, all the way to the Takashimaya department store on Kawaramachi, I found a taxi stand; and after a few minutes, found myself in a nice, warm taxi for the ride across town.

I ordered a special Japanese New Year’s, bento, an osechi, which I ate all day New Year's Day.

On January 2, I went up to Kamigamo Jinja shrine for hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year. Crowded, but perhaps less so than the day before, I made my prayers for the new year.

I wanted to buy an ema, a wooden tablet on which to write my prayer. In November, we had been invited to a presentation to introduce the 2026 ema, but they were already sold out. I’ll have to come back in a few weeks.

Some thoughts on the past year. And the Next.

I’ve been trying to be more offline, and have been able to meet many people in person that I interact with online. It’s great and we should all endeavor to do this more often. It’s what the analog renaissance is about: read a book, listen to a record, shoot some film, go to a coffeehouse and talk to people. Like our mothers used to tell us, "Turn off the TV, go outside and play!"

2025 was the year of revelations. “The Year America Broke Open,” as Sherrilyn Ifill calls it. The revelation that the government and companies we trusted were not actually worthy of that trust. 

The year people and governments around the world realized that America was no longer a reliable partner, no longer “a trustworthy and stable maintainer of critical systems for global interchange,” as Cory Doctorow says.

Just as manufacturers have spent the past few years trying to pull their supply chains out of China, now people and governments are trying to pull their data out of the US.

America’s leading tech companies are racing full throttle into AI. But in a world full of AI slop, authenticity has become a valuable commodity. Joan Westenberg makes the case for going back to blogging as a cure to social media. 

That's what I'm doing with this blog, and with my Picture of the Day photos as well. These are my blog and my website; I control them, not someone else. I syndicate them to social media for your viewing convenience, but the best experience is on my own website. I support RSS for you to add me to your own personalized news feed; you can also subscribe to my daily photo email to get them in your inbox.

2025 was quite a year. So many things coming to a head now. In 2026, I believe they will boil over. Hold onto your hats!

My best to all of you in 2026. Thanks for your interest and support. I'll continue to do my best to deserve your trust.

-- Daniel