 | Welcoming Year 2004: Shinto priests leave the main shrine after a shinto ritual to usher off 2003 and prepare for the new year at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, December 31, 2003. Some two million people are expected to visit the shrine during the first three days in the new year to pray for long life and happiness. click to open  |
 | Welcoming Year 2004: Shinto priests walk toward the main shrine for a ceremony to usher off 2003 and prepare for the new year, at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, December 31, 2003. Some two million people are expected to visit the shrine during the first three days in the new year to pray for long life and happiness. click to open |
 | Welcoming Year 2004: Shinto priests walk through a wooden torii gate to leave the main shrine after a shinto ritual to usher off 2003 and prepare for the new year at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, December 31, 2003. Some two million people are expected to visit the shrine during the first three days in the new year to pray for long life and happiness. click to open |
 | Holding their child, parents strike a bell to ring in the new millennium at Zojoji Buddhist Temple in Tokyo Saturday, Jan. 1, 2000. Traditionally at Buddhist temples, devotees strike the bell 108 times to clean 108 worldly desires and start a fresh new year. click to open |
 | Japanese Shinto priests make their way to a New Year ritualcelebration at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo Friday Dec 31 1999. Hundreds of thousands of people will visit the shrine for the millennium celebrations later in the evening. click to open |
p1