While Christmas in Japan is much like it is anywhere else (a big commercial opportunity), New Year actually is a big deal. People brave some quite cold weather to go to temples (both major and minor) at midnight, and there are various activities including bell-ringing and fortune-telling for the year ahead.

The mirrorless Olympus I had been using as a stopgap measure after the Sigma gave up the ghost was a nice enough camera, but I never really bonded with it. The results were excellent, but I didn't really get any "usability factor" out of it, so I traded it in and with the new year is some "new" gear : a trustworthy Nikon D3 which benefitted from the ever-dropping prices of cameras. With it I picked up a 70-300 zoom (which I'm very familiar with) and an 85mm 1.8, which I was not. It got good reviews pretty much everywhere I looked, and it was very reasonably priced. To pick up that much gear and not be too worried about the price is pretty neat. And I know the D3 well and was confident that it could handle the very dark scenes which were going to come up.

I went to two temples : Atsuta Jingu (which is one of the three major temples of its kind in Japan), and Osu Kannon temple (which is another of Nagoya's main temples). The photos are in chronological order, from late night on the 31st to daytime on the 1st (and yes, I did sleep in between!). Needless to say, all the night shots were handled by the 85mm, and very well it performed too.

There are lots of "yatai" - stalls - open around this time, as there will be a very large number of people arriving for the countdown to midnight.

The main entrance to Atsuta shrine. 

The path leading to the main shrine

Having not used a full frame camera with a fast prime for a long time, I'd forgotten about the level of subject separation with the lens wide open. I have to be careful not to overuse it, but it looks so nice that the temptation is always there!

The "gift shop", so to speak, probably does a roaring trade on the 31st / 1st.

The area directly in front of the main shrine was already heavily crowded at around 11, and this is as far as I went.

More stalls

The trains run all through the night on the 31st / 1st...and, this being Japan, they're almost certainly bang on time each and every one.

For a modest fee, people can ring the temple bell once it hits midnight.

Fast forward around ten hours and the remaining shots from the morning of the 1st: "crowded" would be putting it mildly.

It was somewhat tiring shooting at midnight, going home, sleeping, and going back out again the next day, but then again this only happens once a year so it's usually worth the effort.

Plenty more to come from the D3 and iPhone this year. Hope your 2016 is a good one and, as always, thanks for looking!