Za7 Blog

Japan has a tradition of celebrating the New Year with a lot of excitement, decoration, and social gatherings. The New Year is officially celebrated during the first 7 days of January. During which time, people take time away from work, and most businesses and even markets close down. Most people start work again the soonest Monday after the New Year.

The New Year is a time to clean up the house and business. Japanese people will clean everything in their house, inside and out. I was walking around my area in Tokyo and I saw one in every 3 houses with the front door and windows wide open in the wintertime with the sound of a vacuum cleaning inside. They are serious about cleaning on the last few days before the New Year.

Around the end of the year, people are also busy making Mochi, which is just a version of everyday rice that is smashed after it is cooked into a sticky thick wonderful rice sensation. Hmmm, sticks to your mouth goodness. It is best served in a soup or with a little added flavor. It is usually put it a tree stump with the top rounded out and smashed with a wooden hammer! Its fun, but don’t combine drinking when swinging the large wooden hammer!

The time around Christmas, usually a huge deal in the US, Japanese people are having parties with colleagues to celebrate the end of another year. Yes, its drinking party season again, wintertime version. Lots of drunken businessmen (ladies don’t usually get drunk in public) on the trains and staggering around in the streets trying to get home.

Now that New Years is almost upon us, it is time to get ready to visit the temple and have some Soba noodles. Soba is a type of noodle make from Buckwheat, it has a mild, earthy taste and is a very popular food to eat anytime. Japanese people will eat Soba as their last meal of the year. It is a tradition.

Great, now that we have eaten our Soba and had a lot to drink, also a tradition, its time to head to the local temple to pray for Good Luck for the New Year. Let’s Go! Japanese people believe their are Kamisama, or gods of the earth, that watch over Japanese people and reward people for being diligent and working hard. People who don’t believe in these gods still go because, hey, what could it hurt? Besides its fun. Take a look at the pictures below. I went to one of the largest temples in downtown Tokyo where thousands of people come to pray for good luck and enjoy a festival at the temple. The Temple is called Sensoku and is located in the Old Downtown named Asakusa.

Take a look at this crowd of people waiting in line to go pray, this is just a small portion of them, but it looks good with the gate in the background. This gate was being refurbished and cleaned for the past year and a half, it is so beautiful now.

Here is a picture showing the Gate, the 5 story Pagoda, and the festival in the foreground. There is lots to eat, fresh seafood, snacks, noodles, treats, and lots of alcohol. Sweet, more drinking. Its a theme during this time of year.

These two pictures were taken a few minutes after the New Year, Tokyo time. There was no countdown or special climactic event. Just a lot of happy people outside in the cold at night anticipating another great year.

There is also a very special decoration called Kumade, that is found around New Years. These are bought every year, while last year’s is discarded, as it is believed to no longer be useful. It is a sort of spiritual decoration that is supposed to bring you luck during the whole year. These can be as small as your hand, or as large a car! They range in price from $20 all the way to $30,000! I am sure the bigger ones are being sold for much more, but a $30,000 one is about as big as a large TV and intricately decorated with detailed figures, leaves, flowers, signs with characters on them, gold colored objects, money-like objects, health-related objects, and much more. There is actually a whole festival JUST to sell and display these. They are absolutely astounding! Take a look at the ones for sale at the temple on New Years here in the picture.

Here is a picture of a large one displayed at a temple that my family went to pray at near our house. This temple is called Otorisama. It is popular to pray for financial and business related luck for the coming year.

The Japanese New Year is a lot like Christmas: full of traditions, eating, drinking, family, friends, cold, and fun. I hope you learned something new. Tell a friend about it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 6:35 am and is filed under Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.