Japan celebrates New Year the way Westerners do Christmas: at home. In the run-up to December 31, many Tokyo residents leave the capital to return to their families, where tradition dictates that they spend the evening watching NHK's Kohaku, a marathon TV show in which J-pop stars reprise the year's most nauseating hit singles. If you're wanting to hit the town, there's still plenty to do, and it's the one day of the year when the public transport keeps running all night long. The best place to be for the countdown itself is probably at Shibuya crossing, which turns into a writhing mass of humanity at midnight. Afterwards, you could head to a local club like Womb or Sound Museum Vision, or else go and join the queues at Meiji Shrine for the all-important ritual of hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year.
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