Hatsumode in Tokyo 2027: Skipping the Three-Hour Queue
Hatsumode in Tokyo 2027: Skipping the Three-Hour Queue
At Meiji Jingu on January 1, the queue starts before you reach the torii and the walk to the offering box can take three hours. At Shibamata Taishakuten, out in eastern Tokyo, the same ritual on the same morning takes about fifteen minutes if you turn up at 7am.
Both are hatsumode. Only one of them is a good use of your first day in Japan.
I'm Atsushi, host at Bon House in Kanamachi, one stop down the line from Shibamata. I've spent five New Years watching guests leave for Meiji Jingu at 11pm on the 31st and come back at 4am, cold and slightly stunned. Some of them thought it was worth it. Most asked why I hadn't mentioned the local option.
So: here's the local option, and here's how to do the famous ones without wrecking a day.
Tokyo Hatsumode: Crowd Levels and Timing
| Temple / Shrine | Visitors over New Year | Worst times Jan 1 | Realistic quiet window |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meiji Jingu | ~3 million (3 days) | 0:00–3:00, 10:00–17:00 | Jan 3 after 16:00 |
| Sensoji, Asakusa | ~2.8 million (3 days) | 0:00–3:00, 11:00–16:00 | Jan 1, 6:00–8:00 |
| Shibamata Taishakuten | ~250,000 | 0:00–3:00, 10:00–15:00 | Jan 1, 3:00–9:00 or after 17:00 |
Hatsumode means the first shrine or temple visit of the year. It runs through the first three days of January — the sanganichi — and there is no rule that it has to happen at midnight. The midnight crowd is a choice, not a requirement.
Shibamata Taishakuten: 250,000 Visitors, and Nine Quiet Hours
Shibamata Taishakuten is a Nichiren temple founded in 1629, best known outside Tokyo as the setting of the Otoko wa Tsurai yo film series. It draws around 250,000 visitors across the New Year period — a genuine crowd, but two orders of magnitude below Meiji Jingu.
The crowd is also badly distributed, which is good news for you. The peaks on January 1 are midnight to about 3am, then again from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, roughly 10:00 to 15:00. Between 3am and 9am, and again from around 17:00 until closing, it thins right out.
I send guests at 7am on January 1. You get the approach street half-awake, the stalls setting up, the temple's carved wooden panels without a shoulder in front of them, and you're back for breakfast before the crowd arrives.
The sando — the approach lane from Shibamata station to the temple gate — is the other reason to come. It's a preserved street of wooden shopfronts selling kusa-dango, senbei, and grilled things on sticks, and during the New Year period they're all open. See our Shibamata travel guide for what's worth eating there the rest of the year.
From Kanamachi it's one stop on the Keisei Kanamachi Line — a few minutes and under ¥200 — or a 25 to 30 minute walk along the Edogawa river if you want the cold air.
Sensoji in Asakusa: Go at Dawn on January 1
If you want a large, famous temple and you're staying in east Tokyo, Sensoji is the one to do — around 2.8 million visitors across the three days, but a much more forgiving shape than Meiji Jingu because the grounds are wide and the Nakamise approach keeps people moving.
The trick is the same: skip midnight. Come between 6:00 and 8:00 on January 1. The lanterns are still lit, the light is good, Nakamise's shutters are painted, and you can walk to the main hall without stopping.
Kanamachi to Asakusa is about 30 minutes. Our Sensoji guide covers the layout and the etiquette in more detail.
Hatsumode Etiquette: What to Do at the Shrine
The ritual is short and nobody minds if you're clumsy about it.
- Bow once at the gate before entering. Walk to the side of the central path, not down the middle.
- At the water basin, rinse your left hand, then your right, then pour a little into your left hand to rinse your mouth. Don't drink from the ladle. Some places have suspended this — follow what everyone else is doing.
- At the offering box, toss a coin. A ¥5 coin is traditional — go-en puns on "good relationship." Nobody checks.
- At a shrine: bow twice, clap twice, make your wish, bow once. At a temple like Taishakuten or Sensoji: no clapping. Bow, press your palms together, bow again.
- Afterwards, buy an omikuji fortune. If it's bad, tie it to the rack provided and leave it there.
The shrine-versus-temple clapping distinction is the one thing worth remembering. Clapping at a temple is the tourist tell.
What's Open and What's Closed, January 1–3
This is the part that catches people, and it's more disruptive to a trip than the queues.
Closed or reduced: - Most independent restaurants, from December 31 through January 3 or later - Rikugien, Koishikawa Korakuen and the other Tokyo metropolitan gardens — closed December 29 to January 1 - Many small shops and the smaller shopping streets - Post offices and banks
Open: - Convenience stores, almost all of them, throughout - Major department stores, usually from January 2 with fukubukuro lucky bags - Chain restaurants, family restaurants, and most ramen shops - Trains, on an extended New Year timetable. JR East runs all-night service on a handful of Tokyo lines on December 31 — six lines including the Yamanote and Chuo-Sobu for the 2025–26 New Year — and Keisei adds late services. The exact list changes every year and is published in early December, so check before you rely on a 2am train home.
If you're self-catering, shop on December 30. On the 31st the supermarkets are stripped of anything resembling New Year food, and on the 1st the good ones are shut. Life and the supermarkets near Kanamachi station follow this pattern every year without fail.
A room with a kitchen matters more this week than any other. With the restaurants shut on January 1 and 2, guests who can cook a simple meal have a much better New Year than guests eating konbini onigiri for the third time. See the room and the kitchen setup — New Year dates book out earliest of any period we have.
A Family Who Did Both and Ranked Them
A family of four from Kuala Lumpur stayed with me over New Year 2025. The parents did Meiji Jingu at midnight on the 31st — left at 22:30, home at 3:40am. The next morning at 7am, half-slept, they walked to Shibamata with the kids anyway.
The father's summary when he checked out: Meiji Jingu was the story they'd tell, Shibamata was the morning they'd remember. The nine-year-old had a grilled rice cracker at 7:30am from a stall that had just opened and talked about it for the rest of the week.
If you have one New Year morning and children, don't spend it in a three-hour queue.
Building the First Three Days of January
December 31, evening. Toshikoshi soba at home or at a local shop before it closes. If you want the midnight bell — joya no kane — Taishakuten rings it, and local temples across Katsushika do too. You can hear it from the street without joining any queue.
January 1, 7:00. Shibamata Taishakuten. Back by 9:30.
January 1, afternoon. Rest, or the Sumida riverbank. The gardens are closed, so don't plan around them.
January 2. Sensoji or a department store for fukubukuro. Both work; both are busy in a normal, manageable way.
January 3. Meiji Jingu if you still want it — after 16:00 on the 3rd is the calmest the sanganichi gets. Or Mizumoto Park, which is open, free, empty, and has migratory waterbirds in January.
For the wider area, see our Kanamachi guide and day trips from Kanamachi.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to do hatsumode at midnight on January 1?
No. Hatsumode is the first visit of the year, and any time in the first three days counts — many Japanese people go on the 2nd or 3rd specifically to avoid the crush. The midnight visit is a tradition, not an obligation, and at the big shrines it means two to three hours standing still in the cold.
Is Tokyo worth visiting over New Year?
Worth it if you want the shrine visits, the fukubukuro sales, and a version of Tokyo where the traffic disappears for three days. Not worth it if your trip depends on restaurants, museums, and gardens — a large share of them close from December 29 to January 3, and you'd get more out of the same money in mid-January.
Can non-Japanese people do hatsumode?
Yes, and nobody will treat it as odd. Shrines and temples during hatsumode are public and busy, the staff are used to visitors, and the etiquette above is all anyone expects. The one thing to avoid is walking down the exact centre of the approach path at a shrine — that lane is nominally for the deity.
Last updated: August 2026. Visitor figures are typical-year estimates published by local guides, not official counts. Confirm opening hours with each temple close to the date.