Happy New Year from Japan

And here is how we celebrated our New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in Japan this year.

For dinner I made toshi koshi soba, Year-End Soba. We had our noodles in a cold dipping sauce (instead of hot) and a couple pieces of tempura on the side. As my mother-in-law will tell you these noodles symbolize living a long and "narrow" life. Narrow meaning not to any extremes. "Adventure" is not her middle name.



J's best friend came over to spend the night (with a giant plate of sashimi in hand!) and we all did nothing much until a little after 11:30 when we drove into the mountains to the local temple to ring in the New Year.

Here are J and his buddy by the drum can fire. Behind them is the little tower that houses the bell.


Everyone lines up to take their turn at ringing out the current year's sins, so they can start the next year afresh. Sinfree, if you will. Afterward, the head monk and his little helper monk (or maybe not a monk, dude had a beard) give out cups of hot sake (for adults) and amazake (for the kids).



Someone keeps an eye on their cell phone to catch when the year ends and in previous years J jumps in the air at the exact moment so he can say he wasn't actually on this earth when the new year came. I know, an old joke but... This year he played it cool and sipped his drink.

A few "Happy New Years" and awkward hugs, then we go home to sleep for a couple hours before I'm waking everyone up at five thirty saying, Get your coats on! We're going to be late!

We drive the ten minutes to the beach. It's dark, but the horizon is just starting to light up. Here you can see the moon and (I think) Venus up there. You'll have to click on the photo to see a bigger version.



There are about fifty people to a hundred people gathered. A lot of them are dressed up and dancing and singing. Some have giant flags they're waving about. Others with cameras in hand or small dogs tucked under their arms.

Over here you can see Mount Fuji. All those people you see there are crowded around a fire. People make fires all up and down the beach. They warm sake over them or cook sticky rice cakes or even large pots of pork and vegetable soup which they share with anyone who walks by or stops to warm their hands by the fire.


Here the sun is just behind those clouds. Oh, and a wave!


Getting closer. Everyone's holding there breath.


And here we have it. The first sunrise of 2011! About this time everyone is banzai-ing and making little wishes with their hands clasped in front of them. Dogs bark, children cheer, and boy do those dancers go wild. (I tried to upload a video of them, but it was too huge. Need to work on that.)


And here's another because I took dozens of photos and really hate for them to sit in my camera. This is probably taken a nanosecond after the first. The camera is tilted. Otherwise, same shot.




After the sunrise we drove to the docks to look at the boats all decorated with New Year garb.
Some garb.




Some more garb and a Mount Fuji again, way back there.


Here's a lovely Mount Fuji if you can just ignore that light pole. I don't know how many cameramen have cursed that darned light pole. I'm surprised someone hasn't hacked it down by now. I could probably erase it with Photoshop but am a bit snob about not retouching anything on a picture. So Mr. light pole stays. As does the seagull.



It wasn't until we had walked the length of the port to take the above photo that we realized J and his friend hadn't followed us. We figured they were cold and hiding out in a patch of sunlight. But instead when we found them they were breathing heavy and saying they'd just had an interesting experience.

It seems two girls ran their car off the edge of the dock and ran screaming over to J and Y begging for help. The boys had to lift the car while they slowly backed up. I said what a lovely thing to do on New Year's Day. They said their arms hurt.


I'll leave you with one more. Here is Mount Fuji, seagull and old ships. This pretty much sums up where I live. If you can only imagine the smell of salt and fish, you'd practically be here!


Happy New Year, everyone!

Happy New Year, a rant, and Happy New Year Again

First off, Happy New Year!

Over the years my husband, son and I have developed two steadfast New Year's traditions: One is to visit our local temple at midnight on New Year's Eve to ring out all the sins of the past year (joya no kane).

Last year the head monk passed away. So sad. That man was the epitome of Zen. He had a great laugh, easy smile and I remember more than once a hormone-raging, very pregnant me drove up into the mountain to talk to him about my mother-in-law and her various psychological tortures. No matter what he was doing he'd sit and talk to me and make me feel better. I'll miss him. On the other hand, his super-hot son is now in charge.

Here is the bell tower lit from beneath by one of those fires-in-a-drum-can you often see on movies. They use bamboo so it's not only fragrant but extremely snappy, occasionally explode-y.

There was quite a line this year to ring the bell. Most normal people ring it once per family member. For some reason I haven't quite figured out, the three of us crouch down and all grab the rope and give one giant gong instead. I guess we're aiming for quality not quantity. Here is a picture I took where my husband is saying, "Aren't you going to help?" And my son is saying, "Mom, hurry up everyone is waiting!" The non-photographers in the family, everyone has them.


Afterwards, we drank hot sake (husband), and sweet amazake (J and I), threw our coins into the box, watched some taiko drumming and then headed home. In bed by two thirty. Up again at five thirty for our second family tradition.

Namely, the watching of the first sunrise of the New Year (hatsu hinode). Still sleepy and looking like crap we all loaded into the car and drove out to the beach. Just last year we discovered a great new place.

Look at all those zombiesque-looking creatures building bonfires to keep warm and marching around searching for warm brains. Mount Fuji, too.

"Mmm...brains..."

Below is a shot of the sky just before the first sunrise. We're all getting excited about now.

And here it is! The first sunrise of 2009, all shiny and hopeful. And warm, too. Look at that.

Meanwhile, there are troops of dancing teams performing our town's special 'dance' and waving enormous flags nearby. There were TV crews and cameras and an announcer on the loud speaker directing us all in a mass 'Banzai!'


Everyone saluting the sun.


"Oh, sun so mighty and hot. Let us win the End-of-the-Year Lottery."

* A short rant *

Over the holidays I received some heavenly care packages/presents from family back home (Thank you!). My mom happened to include a bag of Christmasy-colored M & Ms. I'll admit I haven't lived in the States for nearly twenty years and I'm sure a lot has changed, but I have one thing to say, what the hell happened to quality control and the M & Ms factory!?

It's hard to tell from the picture but the colors aren't even the same! All three greens are in different shades.

When I was a kid M & Ms were all the same size, shape and color. M & Ms were magical. They melted in your mouth and not in your hand. Stuff like this makes me feel way old, makes me want to whine and moan and tell stories of back 'when I was a youngin'...' It also makes me want to call the corporate office and give them a piece of my mind. No, really. WTF?

Okay. I'm better now. The CEO at Mars may feel free to e-mail me. We can talk. Humph. Now, if this was some crappy candy like those Peeps or those pukey Valentine's Day hearts I wouldn't care so much. But M & Ms!

Back to New Year's stuff.

Finally, 2009 is the Year of the Cow. I took a bunch of pictures for my Christmas cards and New Year's postcards cards and these are a couple that didn't get chosen, but I liked them none the less and thought I'd post them here.

The dog and the child very obviously NOT looking at the camera and smiling as directed by mom.

And finally, J thinking this will be the shot to be used but not realizing the poor dog can't see.




And to end with a bit of stinging humor. When I showed my mother-in-law the pictures she said... (drum roll, please) ...."The dog looks like he's dressed as a goat." Gotta love her.

New Year's Eve

My absolute favorite part of New Year's Eve is called joya no kane. It takes place at midnight in Buddhist temples all over Japan, a kind of ringing in the New Year. Or more correctly, a ringing out of the 108 sins of mankind.

We go to a temple up on a hill near our house at about eleven thirty. It's peaceful, cold, and very, very dark. But we're bundled up and have flashlights. We survive the short hike from the parking lot to the main temple to find that the monks have built fires in barrels to keep everyone warm and I suppose provide a little light.

This picture was taken two years ago. J and a barrel fire. They feed the fires with Japanese cedar so they smell lovely.

The monks and their wives prepare vats of steaming hot amazake, a sweet drink made from fermented rice, as well as have readied numerous bottles of rice wine and hundreds of small porcelain cups. In the picture below you can see that they are offering everyone drinks. The light in the background is on the tower where the big bell is hung.

After our warming beverages and some small chat with the monks, we line up at the bottom of the tower. By midnight there is quite a line.

The ladder leading up to the narrow platform we must balance on to ring the bell is a tad shoddy and ill lit. The head monk, however, always provides illumination in the form of a large goose-shaped light. It never fails to crack me up. Just as we enter the building and make our way up the ladder, there stands a goose (or a duck) with a light bulb up its butt. The cutest darned thing. So Zen, I think.

When midnight strikes a group of local taiko drummers take off all their clothes, begin playing and we're allowed to go up and take a swing at the bell. We climb back down and let the next person/family go up.

Now the bell is only supposed to be rung 108 times, one for each human passion or sin. But again, the head monk is a hoot and doesn't count or hand out numbers. Instead, he just lets us have at it until the last person is done.

Here is a different temple. But you can feel the mood. Our temple is darker and the bell is on the second floor of a small tower. No snow either.

Oh, here is J (two years ago) enjoying some too-hot amazake. He's sleepy.

After we ring the bell we go home, get three to four hours sleep, and then I wake everyone's asses up at five AM to go see the first sunrise of the New Year. Here, we again pile into the car and head to the beach. Invariably, there are already dozens of people there milling about -- teenagers in tight groups trying to keep warm, old men building beach fires and getting drunk on sake and trying to invite the teenage girls to join them...to keep warm. The mood is far from the relaxed mellowness of the night before. It's more high tension giddiness if anything. Everyone gazes across the ocean and waits for the sun to come up. When it breaks the horizon or line of clouds a cheer goes up and some tipsy old fellow makes a toast to the New Year and makes us all "BONZAI!" three times. By us I mean everyone on the beach. He's quite insistent.

Oh, and before I forget, for your first dream of the New Year there is an old Japanese saying:

"Ichi fuji, ni taka, san nasu", which means it is good luck to dream of Mount Fuji, a hawk or an eggplant. The most felicitous dream would be that of Fuji, next the bird, then the vegetable.