昨日は朝御飯を食べてすぐに初詣に行きました。We went to pay a visit to a shrine as soon as we finished breakfast yesterday. この地域では一番大きな神社、橿原神宮です。The shrine was Kashiwara jingu, the largest in this region. 去年は大晦日から1月3日までで130万人くらいは参拝したそうです。They say nearly 1.3 million people visited there from December 31 to January 3 last year.
電車は奇跡的に座れましたが、We were so lucky to find seats in the train, but after getting off at the station, it was astonishingly crowded. 駅に降りると人でごった返しています。駅前の広場にもたくさんお店が出て、There were many temporary food stands in front of the station and along the road to the shrine. 行列する人と神社に向かう人、駅に戻る人が交錯して夫と手を繋がないとはぐれそうです。It was like a chaos with numerous people come and go, or stand in line to get food at the stands, I held my husband's hand tightly in order not to lose sight of him.
私たちは多分お店がすごく混んでいると予想して朝御飯をしっかり食べてきました。We had a big breakfast expecting these food stands would have extremely long lines. コロナの直前のお正月に来た時、Just before the COViD outbreak in January 2020, we also visited this place, and had lunch at one of the stands, ordering oden Japanese stew, which was expensive with so little portion. ここでおでんを食べたら高くて量が少なく、残念だった記憶があったのです。
ちょうどお昼時で、It was around noon yesterday, so the stands selling fried chickens, 唐揚げやたこ焼き、takoyaki octopus dumplings, and fried noodles were surrounded by lots of people, unable to see the sellers. 焼きそばのお店はどこも人だかりで店先が見えないほどです。
参道を10分くらい歩くと一つ目の鳥居があり、About ten minutes' walk will take you to the first torii gate, and another three minutes you'll find another torii. そこから3分くらい行くと二つ目の鳥居です。一部は歩行者天国で車が遮断されていますが、Some parts of the road, cars were blocked, but other parts there were some traffic that pedestrians could barely move so slowly like packed trains during rush hours. 車が通る交差点もあり、歩道だけだと満員電車のような混雑です。
鳥居を抜けると建物が見えてきます。Going through the gates, main buildings of the shrine came into sight. 曇っていたのがだんだん日差しが出て、ダウンジャケットの中に汗が出てきました。At first, it was cloudy but gradually got so sunny that I felt a little hot with sweats under my jacket.
