New Year 2002. Went to Meiji-jingu for the New Year celebration in 2001/2. It's a tradition in Japan to go to a shrine at New Year and wish for nice things to happen to you. Seemed like a good idea at the time, go along, hurl my coins at the shrine and pick up my good luck on the way out.
Of course, at midnight, there are plenty of other people who have the same idea. So for about 3 hours, Aki and I were stuck one of the longest and fattest queues I'd ever seen. After all that time, after trying not to struggle too much with your queue neighbours, after all the adverts you passed and "live TV coverage" of your final destination, what's the climax? Chuck your coins into a giant white canvas and run to the exit. Didn't exactly have that feeling of time-honoured tradition and spirituality I expected.
I don't know if I received that much good luck last year, so I'm thinking of getting a refund.