On New Year's, GarbledOne and I went over to Little Tokyo in LA to check out the celebrations that were going on.

New Year's in Little Tokyo: A family pours water on the Buddha outside a temple.

Full story and more pictures after the break.

We arrived in Little Tokyo around 11 in the morning, and already festivities were underway.

Weller Court: I haven't seen it this full in a long time.Kite: A renowned artist wrote this to welcome the new year.Kite: After it was mounted over the second floor of Weller Court.Mochi: Making and selling New Year's mochi.

Mochi!: Throwing mochi to the children in the crowd.

We walked around the Little Tokyo area, and we stopped by the various booth and picked up some snacks:

Taiyaki: One word: Uguu~

We walked around and eventually stopped by a Buddhist temple. We left a small offering and picked up some good luck charms for the new year.

Buddhist Temple: Taken while waiting to go inside.Buddhist Temple: A sign by the front door.Buddhist Temple: The line to go inside.Buddhist Temple: Inside the temple.

Good luck charms: I picked up the charm and arrow while at the Buddhist temple.

Following the visit to the temple, we had lunch at the Kyoto Grand Hotel, then walked around some more and enjoyed the festive atmosphere. Kinokuniya was having a $1 sale out front, so we both picked up a few magazines.

Magazines: Can't be an otaku without buying something in Little Tokyo...

We hung around into the afternoon, then went home after the scheduled events ended. Overall, I had a great time celebrating New Year's in Little Tokyo, especially since I got an "excellent" fortune from the temple.

PS - GarbledOne had mentioned to me later that there were actual miko around. That would imply there's a Shinto temple somewhere in the area, so we'll have to make sure to look for it next year.