On New Year’s Day, as I do every year, I paid a New Year’s visit to a local shrine to pray to the deities enshrined there for the development and prosperity of the Imperial nation and the happiness of all the people, to buy a shrine calendar to check my good fortune around my star for this year and to draw an omikuji to predict my fortune for this year. Then, I gathered around a festive meal with my relatives to celebrate each other’s health and pray for a safe and peaceful year ahead…until we heard the news of the earthquake and tsunami centered on the Noto Peninsula in the afternoon.