The main entrance to the Zojoji Park. We checked it out earlier on to see what had been done to the place for the ceremony. Unlike in locales like New York's Times Square or Madrid's Puerta del Sol, locals and tourists alike did not have to stake their spots in the park. Marc and I arrived just half an hour before midnight and we still managed to enter the rather small park.

Here I was in front of the clock by Zojoi's main entrance which did the ritual and customary countdown. As the clock shows, my pic was taken 40 minutes into the New Year, 2005.

The Tokyo Tower right behind the Zojoji Temple.

This was the site where the very Japanese ceremony to welcome the New Year took place. Some Buddhist monks lead the ceremony. It was so quiet and calm. Had it been anywhere else people would have screamed and yelled. There would have been some sort of fireworks display. None of the sort happened in the park. What was unique to the celebration was the unleashing of balloons to the sky at the stroke of midnight.

There were no fireworks here. The tower was surrounded by the transparent and white colored balloons which the locals let go into the air.