new year's

I think it would be accurate to say that New Year's, or Oshogatsu, is the most significant holiday in Japan. It's all about time with family, special traditions and rituals, and starting the new year off clean and refreshed. At the end of the year, many groups of friends and co-workers have bonnenkai, drinking parties to forget the troubles of the past year. Houses are cleaned from top to bottom, and nearly everyone visits a shrine or temple to pray for the new year.

We were privileged this year to join our friends, Mio and Tetsuo, and Mio's family, at Mio's mother's house for New Year's. They were perfect hosts. We had a great time experiencing many New Year's traditions, relaxing, playing games, and chatting. Mio's family is so down to earth and relaxed that it was easy to feel comfortable.

We took a lot of pictures, so here they are, along with some descriptions of a Japanese New Year's. Much of what we did was pretty traditional, but then there were some more Western elements too. For example....

New Year's Eve dinner was sashimi . . .

. . . and pizza and chips & salsa. It was a global dinner, as Tetsuo called it.

That night we watched a really popular New Year's Eve program, a singing competition featuring famous pop bands/singers and traditional enka singers. Next to the TV is a New Year's decoration. Traditionally the white sections are mochi and the top a mikan (small orange).

This was not Japanese. :) Mio thought it was a Chinese tradition, but I don't claim to know for sure. Anyway, she bought us all new socks which we put on just before midnight. The idea was to stomp out bad luck for the new year.

And New Year's soba. The noodles are supposed to be long in order to symbolize long life.

We tried to visit a shine that night, but the line was waaaay down the street. I think we would have waited for several hours and it was already after midnight. It was pretty fascinating that that many people would come out in the middle of the night to pray. I am sure that many people do it out of honest devotion, but there is definitely an element of fun and superstition to it as well.

After Mio and Tetsuo dropped us off around 1am, we walked down to the temple in Yukarigaoka to see what was going on. There was a bonfire and people were lining up to ring the big bell. Most of the people hanging around were young people with their friends. We sort of hid in the bushes to observe, then snuck back home. We were up early the next morning to head back to Mio's mom's house for another full day of new traditions.