good places to go for new year.

hi all,
any recommendation for places to visit for new year period?

im aleady planning to visit Meiji shrine.

thanks

. . . you mean Tokyo area? As has been mentioned earlier, the other focus of activity is Asakusa.

And if the Meiji Shrine and Asakusa is not enough of a New Year's Day overdose, than the most popular spot in Yokohama area is Kawasaki Dashi. I think it's a temple. Just take the express to Keikyu Kawasaki from Shinagawa and take the local train there. Many, many people. As expected, there's a main road to the temple lined with street vendors and gift shops.

I believe another area with lots of activity is a temple near the Tora-San museum in the Tokyo suburbs. Maybe somebody else can chime in on the name. It know it from a JR hike and there is a main street to the temple similar to the one at Kawasaki Daishi. This temple is unique in that it displays a magnificently carved, ornate wooden scupture.

There's also a major shrine or temple near Mito, I believe.

Many Japanese visit these spots after New Year's too, perhaps to avoid the crowds.

Clevor is mentioning about Taishakuten temple in Shibamata, located in the northeast of Tokyo next to Edo river. It should be very interesting for you to go there if you are good at finding how to get there. It is a little complicated to go there by train, but you can try.
Meiji shrine on the New Year's Day will be very crowded with millions of visitors to pray for their new year wishes, but it will be the same everywhere. I can also recommend you a few more famous shrines in Tokyo for you to visit, which are Nezu shrine, Kanda-myojin shrine, Hieda shrine, Shinagawa shrine, Tomioka Hachimangu shrine, Hikawa shrine, and Ohji shrine. The weather is said to be very very cold on the New Year's Day, so keep warm especially if you get up early to see the first sun rising.

I guess I will not go on the new year day itself to avoid the crowd.. maybe on the 2nd or 3rd? I wouldn't be starting work until 7th, so got quite a number of days to explore tokyo :)

Keith, people come to worship in either of the "three festive days" during Jan 1-3 and popular shrines and temples will be overcrowded.

During these 3 days, why not visit a small local shrine? There are plenty in any neighborhood. Just ask at your accomodation for details on small shrines and temples. It will be ideal to go to one of those places on midnight of New Year's Eve. You might get a chance to strike a huge temple bell or drink some sweet, thick rice wine.

You can go to popular temples after Jan 4 and still feel some New Years atmosphere and shop cheap souveniors from the wagon venders. Of course you can always take a peek during Jan 1-3 to see if you can challenge the crowd.