People in Japan are gearing up for New Year festivities.
A shrine in the rice-growing town of Takanezawa, in Tochigi Prefecture, central Japan, dedicated a 3-layer jumbo rice cake on Friday, in thanks for the passing year's bounty.
The round cake measures 90 centimeters high and weighs 500 kilograms. A forklift carried the lower 2 layers to the hall of worship, while 12 female shrine attendants put the third layer in place.
A citrus fruit measuring 20 centimeters in diameter crowned the traditional New Year decoration.
In Tokorozawa City, Saitama Prefecture, a Japanese restaurant is preparing 160 sets of traditional New Year foods using ingredients from Fukushima Prefecture, which was hard hit by the March disaster and subsequent nuclear accident.
The restaurant's operator, who is from the prefecture, says she wants to encourage people in her hometown because they are still suffering from the effects of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
At an aquarium in Yokohama, a 9-year-old otaria, a kind of sea lion, is practicing writing a Chinese character meaning dragon -- the zodiac sign for 2012.
Helped by a keeper, the male otaria, named Jay, wrote the character with a brush in his mouth before a cheering crowd on Friday. He will soon display his writing technique in a New Year event.
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