Happy New Year

It’s 2010, and if you’re reading this post, that’s good. That means you’re sober.

Just kidding.

Anyway, Japan, unlike most Asian countries, celebrates its New Year on January 1st, because in the Meiji Period, the Chinese lunar calendar was replaced with a Western one. For this reason, holidays, including Buddhist holidays, fall on set times of the year, rather than shifting around as they do in the old lunar calendar.

However, as is the case with China other asian countries, New Year’s is a really big deal, a family holiday and so on. It’s much less the “get drunk” holiday we have in the West, and more of a three-day celebration. In the morning of the first day, it’s not uncommon to enjoy special foods just for New Year’s called osechi-ryōri (お節料理), which come in many shapes and sizes. When I went last year, my in-laws got a special bento box just for my little girl (who just turned 2), which was Anpanman-themed since that was her favorite character at the time. Osechi-ryori isn’t food you’d normally eat, and frankly you can get tired of it quickly, but it’s a nice treat once a year.

Another special treat for my little was receiving lots of otoshidama (お年玉) or small envelopes of money for children. My little one did rather well last year from family members in Japan, but also from my wife’s good friends (who all adore her), and also close neighbors. Plus the extended family who was happy to see her come all the way from Ireland (we still lived there at the time). They usually come in small envelopes like these:

And, as is typical of Japanese culture, my wife keeps track of who gave gifts and tries to send a reply gift sometime later, usually about half the approximate value. In Japan, there’s a lot of back-and-forth with gifts like this. It can be frustrating to keep track of, but is nice when you’re the recipient.

Usually, during one of the three days observed for New Year’s, people also make their first visit to a Shinto shrine, or Buddhist temple, depending on one’s preference. This is called hatsumōde (初詣). Last year, we went to a big Shingon Buddhist temple in Kawasaki City called Kawasaki Daishi, which is a popular destination for Hatsumode. I was simply amazed how many people were there. Not only was the street completely filled with people, but also they had to setup an alternate around the side of the temple prevent a bottleneck between people going out and going in.

This year, I am in the US, and on-call, so I won’t be doing any such stuff. I do think I will visit the Shinto Shrine near Seattle, the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America again. My wife and I visited there about 5-6 years ago after New Year’s and it was a nice place. Definitely a legitimate Shinto Shrine. The drive up to Granite Falls is about an hour, so it’s not a small trip, but the weekend after my shift ends, we might go. We’ll see.

Anyway, happy new year everyone!

P.S. I am sad to say that I need to move blog back to sunday, tuesday, thursday-only schedule due to pressing amounts of work (even after the holidays), and my intention to prepare for the JLPT2, which I will write abudantly about in 2010.