The year of the Dog

2018 is my year (the year of the Dog)  according to the Chinese zodiac.

Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu –  Happy New Year!

Hamaya with Ema painted with a picture of this year’s animal, Dog.

Hamaya is an arrow for averting evil, sold at Shinto shrines at the New Year as a good luck charm. People buy them and put them up in their houses to shoot good luck during the year, and the year after they bring them back to the shrines and buy new ones.

Ema is a picture tablet on which a wish is written. Ema usually bears a picture of the year animal, or a horse because people once offered real horses to shrines.