January 1st Sunday at the family shrine around 6 in the morning

[vividperception]

It was a cold out; Kiyoshi could tell when he woke up on New Year’s Day. Kiyoshi already felt sluggish from lack of sleep but that was to be expected for workers of a shrine during New Years. If he had to guess Kiyoshi would assume he had accumulated a lousy four and a half hours of sleep that night, going to bed right after the stroke of

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[lil_sundar]

Neha was looking around the shrine with obvious curiosity. She'd heard that visiting a shrine during the New Year was normal in Japan and thought if she went early she might avoid the crowds.

She turned at a motion out of the corner of her eyes when Kiyoshi stood up and offered him a smile that lit up large, almond-shaped eyes. The eyes then turned to look at the arrows with curiosity.

"What are the arrows for?" she asked. While she was understandable, Neha had a definite Indian accent that enunciated a little too heavily.

[vividperception]

Kiyoshi listened to the interesting accent but he was used to foreigners a lot came to the Shrines in the Tokyo region during New Years.

"They are hamaya's, they are meant to ward off misfortune and to attract good luck. When the year is up you bring it back to be burned and buy another as tradition." Kiyoshi picked up an arrow to show off the details closer.

[lil_sundar]

Neha leaned forward to get a better look at the arrow. "I don't have one from last year...but I think I'll need a little extra luck this year..." she said after a moment of thought.

"How much are they?"

[vividperception]

"It depends on which one you want. The plain arrows are cheaper then the ones with hand painted tablets attached are more." Kiyoshi slide a piece of paper over with the list of prices on it.

"Both work the same it mainly depends if you want on more colorful or not."