New adults attended ceremonies and festive events across Japan on Monday to mark Coming-of-Age Day. Festivities were toned down out of respect for the victims of last year's March 11 disaster.
In some prefectures, ceremonies were held on Sunday. In the hard-hit Tohoku area, ceremonies were tinged with sadness as young people remembered their friends who who perished in the disaster. In Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, one group of young adults held a party and brought photos of six of their classmates who died in the tsunami.
Many other new adults are living in other parts of Japan and were not able to return for the day.
At Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, which usually attracts hundreds of young adults, there were far fewer kimono-clad adults and their families than in previous years. Many of the young adults joined thousands in a line to offer prayers for the New Year.
(Japan Today)
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