It will be seen that if the syllables are taken each as one sound, the ode is same when read backward. It may be translated: “They have all awakened from the long night’s sleep; and how pleasant is the sound as the ship rides the waves!” These slips are eagerly purchased as they are supposed, if put under the pillow on this night, to give lucky dreams. The luckiest dream of all is, according to common superstition, that of Mount Fuji, next to which is a dream of a hawk, and the third that of an egg-plant. On the fourth of January, the government offices are formally opened for the year, and other public and private offices follow suit. On the sixth the fire-brigades of Tokyo assemble in a public place and give acrobatic performances on fire-ladders to show their agility. This day closes the New Year’s festivities, and the decorations are removed. On the eighth, the Emperor reviews the troops in the morning; and on the same day most schools reopen after the New Year’s holidays. The sixteenth is the holiday for apprentices and servants, who go home to their parents or spend the day at the theatres or other places of amusement. The sixth of January opens what is called the period of lesser cold and the twentieth is the first day of the period of greater cold. For a fortnight from the latter date many male votaries, especially of the artisan class, run thinly-clad at night to worship at their favourite shrines as such enthusiasm will, it is believed, make them proficient in their callings; they ring a bell as they run. Some go to a well and pour cold water over themselves at midnight to be purified by that means from the sins of the world. Children go out before daybreak to practise their lessons, boys to read or fence and girls to sing or play the _samisen_. The shrines to which the first visit of the year should be paid are too numerous for mention.