New Year's Scenes

Today, the first day in 2008, I looked some new year's scenes on my way to the post office. Many people was standing in a line to pray to the local Shinto shrine and many shops along the busiest arcade were closed. It seemed a little strange. Well, however, some shops open, including cafes, restaurants, bookstores, toy shops, DVD-rental shops, cellular phone shops and optician's shops. The prayers rest at those cafes and restaurants. Children buy a book or a toy for their New Year's gift and adults who are boring come to the rental shops. But who goes the cellular phone shops or the optician's shops ? It seems more strange.