A Fukuokan's Notes from Sapporo

At last, I have made a New Year visit to a local shrine.

Without visiting a shrine(not for any religious reasons, but because of my gift to make up excuses for loafing), I can’t start a new year. Now I am feeling like having completed an overdue homework. 

In the entrance of shrines, usually there is a stone water basin where you are supposed to rinse your hands and mouth (if you don’t mind transmitted diseases through indirect contacts) .

So there should be water dippers to scoop the water from the basin. While most of the ladles in other shrines are commercial products made with metal or plastic, this shrine shows its individuality with these bamboo ladles

which seemed to have been made with bamboos growing in the shrine site. 

The vivid green colour and the fresh material boost the festive and solemn feeling of New Year shrine visit.

Also, this dipper looks quite up-to-date  in the recent “how far can you be eco-friendly?” craze.

I would love to get one as a souvenir of my visit, but they weren’t on sale. Instead, the shrine offers fortune-telling papers called Omikuji accompanied by a variety of tiny free gifts.