New Year’s is a holiday made for fun. No presents to buy, no families to visit, and a vacation day - do you need more excuses to take a trip? Last year we headed to Joshua Tree, this year we opted to visit some friends who had relocated to Japan. New Year’s is a huge holiday in Japan, more like Christmas is for the United States, everyone visits family, and there’s lots of traditions. So goodbye to drinking champagne and watching fireworks, konichiwa to an Asahi beer and some extra long soba.
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| Hamamatsu Cave Dragon |
New Year’s Eve starts off with a Shinkansen train ride from Kyoto, where we’d been staying for the last few days, to Hamamatsu where our friends Dave and Noriko live. You’re not going to find Hamamatsu listed in your Lonely Planet Japan. Industrial headquarters of Yamaha, as well as several car companies, it’s no tourist mecca. Dave drives us around a bit, and then takes us to the one local attraction, a cave. As caves go, it’s not bad, but you can see why it didn’t really merit a mention in the guidebook. I did dig the smoke snorting cave dragon near the ticket booth.
Now that all the sightseeing is done, we head up into the mountainside a bit to the town of Tenryu, where Noriko’s parents live. Everyone has been cleaning like crazy for the last few days, in Japan, a clean house is a must for New Year’s. As is a huge dinner with your family. The full Anzai clan appears, generally, I think, bemused at their American dinner guests. Noriko’s father is into hunting and fishing, and most of what we eat at dinner is a product of his efforts; wild boar shabu shabu, four kinds of sashimi and deer. He asks if we like the deer, and it is delicious, so we say yes. He says that really, the raw deer is better, we should try that, and he hops up to bring us some from his frozen stash. From one side, Dave whispers that we don’t have to eat the raw deer, and from the other side, Noriko and her sister, Yuko, whisper that it is really good, we should eat it. The raw deer (or shikshimi) appears, with some garlic dipping sauce, and yes, we eat it. And yeah, it’s not bad.
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| Kelly, Noriko, Jacob and Dave at dinner |
Dinner is the main event, after that we are just waiting for midnight, or rather, 20 minutes to midnight. At 11:40, the Shinto shrine across the river starts the annual bell ringing. Noriko’s mom popped by first thing to pick up the wooden tickets for bell ringing spots five through fifteen (the first four are rung by the monks). So everyone is going to literally ring in the new year. Until then, children are played with, naps are taken, tea is drunk.
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| New Year’s Shinto Shrine |
We bundle up and head across the river to the shrine. The first set of ringers line up in front of a massive bell, the old kind that to ring, you pull back and release a long wooden post that rams into the bell. I am nervous. Noriko and Dave give us the rundown. You step up, the guy by the bell yells for you to get ready, you pull the wood back, he’ll tell you to ring, you let go. Then clap your hands in prayer and bow. While the bell resonates, think of bad things leaving your head. The bell will ring 108 times, and by the end you should have a head cleared of 108 bad things to start the year off happy. I think by “bad things” Noriko meant negative thoughts, problems, stuff like that. The weather is freezing, and while we drink a little hot sake (I like these monks!) we watch the four monks and the Anzais ring the bell, and then its my turn to give it a go. I didn’t have the loudest ring, but everything went ok, and I think some bad things left my head (or maybe it was the sake). After we’ve rung the bell, we’re given a gift of special tea and a small year of the rat charm for luck. Shortly after my bell ringing, the clan hustles us home, apparently we have a date with soba at midnight.
Extra long soba, for long life, is traditionally eaten as the new year rolls over. We slurp our noodles and wish each other a “Happy New Year!” in multiple languages. Then we all go home to sleep.
New Year’s Day is all about two things: mochi and shopping. Mochi is pounded rice, and everyone eats it on New Year’s. Mochi is very thick and chewy, and several old people a year die from choking on it. Apparently this year is fortuitous, only a few choking victims and no deaths! We have some in soup. Then a trip to the mall to visit the huge New Year’s Day sales. Visiting a shrine is also a must for the first few days of the new year. As we head to bed I think about all the new things this new year, and hope for luck in 2008, or at least 108 less bad things in my head.
Happy New Year!
PS - In Japan its 2008, but the year is also Heisei 20, standing for the 20th year of Emperor Akihito’s reign.
January 11th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Ahhhh….you make me miss Japan so much! You are so lucky to have experienced a traditional Japanese New Year. Did you get to pound your own mochi? It’s hard work but so worth it!
January 17th, 2008 at 9:09 am
We did not pound our own mochi, we bought it like the lazy wusses that we are.