Braving the cold: Japan's New Year's rituals, in photos

People gathered in Tokyo and Numazu to brave ice-cold water in purification rituals meant to pray for good health during the New Year.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Participants carry a portable shrine 'mikoshi', during the Winter Sea Misogi Festival, a Shinto purification ritual marking the New Year, in Numazu, Japan, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants carry a portable shrine 'mikoshi', during the Winter Sea Misogi Festival, a Shinto purification ritual marking the New Year, in Numazu, Japan, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

A participant during the Winter Sea Misogi Festival, a Shinto purification ritual marking the New Year, in Numazu, Japan, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants prepare for the Winter Sea Misogi Festival, a Shinto purification ritual marking the New Year, in Numazu, Japan, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants prepare to bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Kanda Myojin Shrine in Tokyo, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants throw rice cakes to the public after the Winter Sea Misogi Festival, a Shinto purification ritual marking the New Year, in Numazu, Japan, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants prepare to bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Kanda Myojin Shrine in Tokyo, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Members of the public try to catch rice cakes thrown after the Winter Sea Misogi Festival, a Shinto purification ritual marking the New Year, in Numazu, Japan, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants carry a portable shrine 'mikoshi', during the Winter Sea Misogi Festival, a Shinto purification ritual marking the New Year, in Numazu, Japan, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants pray after pouring cold water over themselves to purify their souls and wish for good health during a New Year's ritual at Kanda Myojin Shrine in Tokyo, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

A participant pours cold water over himself to purify his soul and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Kanda Myojin Shrine in Tokyo, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants pray after bathing in ice-cold water to purify their souls and wish for good health during a New Year ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants prepare to bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants prepare to bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants prepare to bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Participants prepare to bathe in ice-cold water to purify their souls and pray for good health during a New Year's ritual at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Gulf countries reported new attacks Sunday morning, a day after Iran called for the evacuation of three major ports in the United Arab Emirates, threatening for the first time a neighboring country’s non-U.S. assets.

Tehran accused the United States of using “ports, docks and hideouts” in the UAE to launch strikes on Kharg Island, home to the main terminal handling Iran’s oil exports, without providing evidence, as the war showed no signs of ending.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he hoped allies would send warships to secure the vital Strait of ​Hormuz.

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes have deepened Lebanon's humanitarian crisis, with more than 800 people killed and over 850,000 displaced.

Here is the latest:

Crowds gathered Sunday for the burial of 29-year-old Huseyin Firat in Reyhanli, southern Turkey, the Demiroren News Agency reported.

He died from wounds sustained in a March 6 attack on a convoy returning from Afghanistan to Turkey, according to Turkish media reports.

Video footage taken days later showed his vehicle shredded by shrapnel and a large crater near the city of Zanjan, in northwest Iran.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright says he’s been “in dialogue” with some of the countries that Trump hopes will send warships to counter Iran’s efforts to restrict shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. He’s not saying which ones.

Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether shipping through the critical waterway is safe at the moment, Wright responded: “No, it is not.”

He noted that many other countries, especially in Asia, are more dependent than the United States on energy supplies that are shipped through the strait.

“So of course the whole world will be united on the need to open Hormuz and clearly we will have the support of other nations to achieve that objective,” he said.

Wright said he expected China to “be a constructive partner” in efforts to reopen the strait.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi promised “full support and solidarity” in a message to Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

Foreign minister Badr Abdelatty, who was visiting Qatar on Sunday on the first stop of a tour of the Gulf region, delivered the president’s message.

Abdelatty called for a deescalation of hostilities in the region. He said activating a Joint Defense Treaty would “safeguard the security, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Arab states.”

State media reports that four refrigerated trucks carrying medicine, medical supplies, clothing and food left the capital Ashgabat for Iran on Sunday.

The shipment, funded by a charitable foundation, was sent “to the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran, primarily children, as a sign of friendly and fraternal relations,” according to state media. It showed footage of a prayer being recited for the safe delivery of the supplies.

Officials said approximately 250 people from 16 countries have so far crossed into Turkmenistan, an isolated, gas-rich Central Asian nation, which shares a 1,148-kilometer (713-mile) border with Iran.

Turkmenistan maintains one of the strictest visa policies in the world. It provided safe passage to more than 4,000 foreign nationals from 52 countries during the Israel-Iran war last summer.

Police and city workers scoured the area of what appeared to be a cluster munition impact in Tel Aviv on Sunday, attempting to locate and clear any unexploded ordnance.

City workers used street sweepers and power washers to hose down an area where a small munition damaged two cars and spread shrapnel across a small park. Cluster bombs can be exceptionally dangerous for the public as small munitions that are released may not explode on impact and pose a serious danger for passersby.

The impact also left a hole in the pavement, next to a bomb shelter that serves as a youth center at the local swimming pool. Within 90 minutes, bulldozers and other heavy equipment arrived to clear debris and patch the hole.

Israel police said there were a number of impact sites in the greater Tel Aviv area after Sunday’s attacks that left four people injured, one moderately.

Chris Wright told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that there’s been a “short-term disruption’ to the flow of energy and that “Americans are feeling it right now. Americans will feel it for a few more weeks.”

Asked whether the war will be over in a matter of weeks, Wright said: “I think that’s the likely time frame, yes.”

He said gas prices will start to come back down after the war is over.

“At the end, we will have removed the greatest risk to global energy supplies. We’ll go to a world more abundant in energy, more affordable energy.”

Asked about whether pump prices will fall below $3 per gallon by the summer travel season, Wright said: “there’s a very good chance that’ll be true. There’s no guarantees in war.”

The displaced struggled to keep their tents intact as pouring rain and fierce winds hammered the city’s downtown waterfront area Sunday.

An AP team on the ground witnessed one tent succumb to the winds, blowing away entirely.

Fadi Younes, one displaced man who fled to the beach from Beirut’s southern suburbs, found himself battling with his collapsed tent. He had already rebuilt it once after a storm two days ago, he said.

He gestured to new mattresses, now waterlogged, that he bought after the last ones got soaked through.

“I hope that today things in the country will be set right and everyone can return to their homes. A person only truly feels at ease in their own home,” he said.

Younes is among more than 830,000 people displaced by Israeli strikes and evacuation warnings in Lebanon. The Norwegian Refugee Council says that amounts to one in every seven people.

Waltz was asked on CNN Sunday whether the U.S. president was prepared to target oil facilities on Kharg island, which handles 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports, and if so, if he was worried that that could risk even more of an escalation in the war.

“President Trump’s not going to take any options off the table,” Waltz said. “I would certainly think he would maintain that optionality if he wants to take down their their energy infrastructure.”

U.S. Central Command posted on X Saturday that it had struck military targets on the island, but preserved the oil infrastructure.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s comments about the reopening of the crucial Strait of Hormuz came in an interview with the London-based Al-Araby al-Jadeed published Sunday.

“The Strait of Hormuz is not generally closed, but only to the U.S. and its allies, and we will continue this policy as long as the attacks continue,” he was quoted as saying.

The world’s largest aluminum smelter outside China said Sunday it would gradually shut down nearly one-fifth of its production capacity as exports remain blocked through the Strait of Hormuz.

Aluminium Bahrain, or Alba, promised a “controlled and safe shutdown strategy.”

Smelters run at high temperatures and take time to shut down or restart without endangering equipment or damage the containers that hold molten metals.

The company told buyers last week it couldn’t meet its obligations. The timeline of a phased partial shutdown means global aluminum supplies could remain tight even if transit through the Strait of Hormuz quickly returns to normal, keeping upward pressure on prices for products such as construction materials and cars.

Aluminum and oil make up a big part of Bahrain’s economy and limits on production and export threaten to deepen woes in the Persian Gulf Island nation being hit with Iranian airstrikes.

There was no immediate word on damage or casualties.

It was one of the multiple barrages targeting Israel Sunday. It damaged an apartment building in the central Israeli ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak.

The country’s Magen David Adom rescue services said that one man was injured by glass shrapnel. Photos and video showed a blackened hole in place of the apartment’s windows.

Magen David Adom also said paramedics were treating another man in the nearby city of Ramat Gan who sustained blast injuries. It comes after an earlier barrage hit 23 sites in the Tel Aviv area and injured two people.

Collapsed concrete, exposed rebar and sheets of plastic spilled onto the streets of southern Beirut Sunday morning. Smoke rose into the air and small fires burned.

That was the scene in the city’s suburb of Haret Hreik, after a night of continued Israeli airstrikes.

In just 10 days, more than 800,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced by war, just over a year since the last conflict uprooted over a million Lebanese from their homes. Israeli strikes have killed 826 people, including 106 children and 65 women, since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on March 2, according to the Health Ministry.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday escalated his appeal for peace by directly addressing the leaders who launched the war.

“On behalf of the Christians of the Middle East and all women and men of good will, I appeal to those responsible for this conflict,” Leo said. “Cease fire so that avenues for dialogue may be reopened. Violence can never lead to the justice, stability, and peace that the people are waiting for.”

While Leo didn’t mention the United States or Israel by name, he mentioned the bombings that targeted a school — an apparent reference to the missile strike on an elementary school in Iran in the opening days of the war that killed over 165 people, many of them children.

The Vatican has highlighted the carnage of the Minab strike, running a photo of the mass grave for the victims on the front page of its official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, under the headline “The Face of War.” U.S. officials have said outdated intelligence likely led to the United States launching the strike, and that an investigation is ongoing.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said it should be the responsibility of the countries involved to “find ways of ending the hostilities that now have great impact around the world.”

Speaking alongside the leaders of Canada and the other Nordic nations on Sunday, Støre said “it seems to us that the plan for how it will develop is pretty unclear.” He added: “That’s the danger with initiating wars, that they rarely follow a script.”

He said that “we are concerned to see that there is still an escalation.”

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it “takes note” of Trump’s comments. It said that South Korea and the U.S. “will closely coordinate and carefully review” the situation.

The ministry said South Korea closely monitors developments in the Middle East and explores various options to secure safe energy supply routes and protect South Korean nationals.

The Korea International Trade Association says it gets around 70% of its crude oil and 20% of its LNG from the Middle East.

Asked whether Britain is considering sending minesweepers or mine-hunting drones to the strategic waterway to help shipping return to normal, U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told Sky News: “We are talking to our allies.”

“We are intensively looking with our allies at what can be done, because it’s so important that we get the strait reopened,” he said.

Miliband told the BBC on Sunday that “any options that can help to get the strait reopened are being looked at.” He added: “We don’t want a nuclear Iran but ending this conflict is the best and surest way to get the strait reopened.”

Expectations are high that U.S. President Donald Trump could ask Japan to send warships to the Persian Gulf when Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets him on Thursday at the White House.

Public opinion in Japan is divided about getting involved. Foreign Ministry sources told Japanese public broadcaster NHK that Japan makes its own decisions and won’t dispatch ships just because Trump asked. Defense Ministry sources told NHK that deploying Japan’s Self-Defense Forces would be difficult, involving the assessment of the legality of U.S. and Israeli actions. NHK did not identify the sources.

The sites include museums and bazaars, historic government buildings and mosques, Iran’s Cultural Heritage Ministry said Sunday.

Among the damaged sites are the ornate Qajar-era Golestan Palace in Tehran and the Shah Abbas Mosque and the 17th-century Chehel Sotoun palace in Isfahan.

The damage isn’t limited to Tehran and Isfahan. The ministry said sites in Kurdistan, Lorestan and Kermanshah were also affected.

Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom said two men were lightly wounded in central Israel from an Iranian missile attack.

Video released by the service showed a large hole in a city street and shrapnel damage to an apartment building.

The Israeli rescue service United Hatzalah said it was aware of 23 damaged sites.

Israeli police said authorities were inspecting the scenes. Magen David Adom, another rescue service, posted pictures of a car partially set on fire after the barrage.

Iran’s top diplomat says his country is ready to consider any proposal that includes “a complete end” to the U.S.-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic, according to an interview with an Arab daily.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was quoted as saying by the London-based Al-Araby al-Jadeed that mediations by Iran’s neighbors were underway to de-escalate and present “ideas to end the war.” He gave no indication on whether progress has been made.

Araghchi also insisted that Iran’s attacks on its Arab neighbors were limited to U.S. bases and assets. He said Tehran is ready to establish a joint committee with its neighbors to investigate such attacks.

A tanker was seen loading oil Sunday on Iran’s Kharg Island, two days after the U.S. struck military facilities there.

The vessel-tracking platform TankerTrackers said seven more tankers are seen at the anchorage. Five had already loaded fuel oil, while two are waiting to load, according to satellite imagery. It wasn’t immediately clear who the tankers belong to.

Bahrain said Sunday its air defenses have intercepted 125 missiles and 211 drones since the Iran war began.

The small island nation — home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet — has been among the most affected by Iranian strikes, which have hit ports, a hotel, a refinery and a water desalination plant. Similar in size to Singapore and less than one-third the size of Rhode Island, it relies on U.S.-made air defense systems. At least one person has been killed in the attacks.

The International Organization for Migration said Sunday that deteriorating conditions in Iranian cities were “driving increasingly complex mobility patterns.” It says the destruction of homes and facilities that provide basic services are pushing many Iranians to northern provinces, where they think they could be safer.

The U.N. agency said people have been displaced to more than 20 provinces and that shelters were facing strain throughout Iran. Iranians are also fleeing to neighboring states, the agency said, including nearly 32,000 to Afghanistan and nearly 4,000 to Pakistan, even though airports and most border crossings — especially to Iraq — are closed.

Iran’s Health Ministry says U.S. and Israeli strikes have killed 223 women and 202 children since the start of the war on Feb. 28, according to Mizan, the official Iranian judiciary news agency.

The Iranian Red Crescent has said that more than 1,300 people have been killed.

A bulldozer clears debris from the rubble of buildings destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Debris litters the street as smoke rises from buildings damaged in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Policemen stand guard next to the banners showing portraits of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman displays a poster of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei as she waves her country's flag during a campaign in support of the government at the Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Israeli security forces inspect damage at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Holon, central Israel, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Two men ride their motorbike past a billboard of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A man chants slogan while the body of Gen. Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Defense Council and a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader who was killed in a strike, is being buried at the courtyard of the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Rescue workers inspect an apartment damaged in an Israeli airstrike as thick smoke fills the building in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

Fire and plumes of smoke rise from an oil facility in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)