My First New Year in Japan

New Years in Japan is like Christmas in America, an important, religious holiday focused on spending time with family. There are so many cultural aspects to this holiday here. I was excited to experience it! However, since I don’t have a Japanese family, experiencing it first hand is hard. I got to experience some things, but for the most part, I can only go off of what my boyfriend and Japanese friends told they did.

First, nengajou are very important. Basically, they are New Year cards, but they are so serious about them in Japan! Japanese people write nengajou to basically everyone they know: family, friends, coworkers, anyone that did something nice for them that year, doctors etc. It’s a big ordeal, and Japanese people spend hours writing detailed messages in each one saying how indebted they are to that person and wishing them the best in the New Year. Post offices collect all the cards and send them out on January 1^st. People always are rushing to finish them all before then. This year I received several. It’s not my custom to write nengajou (I did write some Christmas cards though), so I only sent one to my boyfriend’s mother since I’m trying to win brownie points.

Nengajou.

Mochi-tsuki is also a part of the Japanese New Year. It means to make rice cakes. I believe they make them to place in front of their ancestor’s shrines as an offering. I’m not exactly sure, but perhaps they eat them later.

Speaking of food, there are certain foods Japanese people eat for the New Year. Osechi is probably the most traditional thing. It’s kind of hard to explain, but imagine a box with dividers in it. In each little divided section, there is a small arrangement of food like sweet black beans, shrimp, omelets, fish roe, and so on. Each food has a meaning. For example, if you eat such and such, it will bring you wealth in the New Year. Osechi is quite expensive. In the past, housewives and grandmothers spent days making it by hand in advance. Today, however, ordering it from supermarkets is quite popular, costing a couple hundred dollars. You can buy really cheap versions from the grocery store for about twenty dollars, but they are not good quality and sit out all day. For me, it was fun to look at them though…even if I didn’t have the desire to try it.

This is osechi. I took this picture from Google images.

Toshikoshi-soba is also a popular New Years dish. My boyfriend always eats it for lunch with his family on January 1^st. The long noodles are supposed to represent long happiness in the New Year, I believe. That is why it’s traditionally eaten. Another example of a long thing that is commonly eaten for New Years is eel.

The main event of the holiday is hatsumoude which means “the first shrine visit of the year.” Some of the bigger more popular shrines have large events where the streets surrounding it are lined with food vendors and such, like a festival. Many families go around midnight the night of Dec 31^st and line up to pray and receive their fortune. Sometimes you must wait in line for over an hour! However, you can do hatsumoude any time from January 1^st though the 3^rd or 4^th. People choose the shrine they want to go to based on their ambitions for the year. My coworker told me that her daughter is preparing to take high school entrance exams, so they went to a shrine where a famous Japanese philosopher is buried.

Hatsumoude was something I got to experience firsthand. Shinya went with me. We were planning on going to a bigger shrine, but when we decided to go on January 2^nd, it was really cold and snowy, so we decided to go to our local shrine in Shijonawate. Since it’s a smaller shrine, it was a little anticlimactic. It wasn’t that different from going any other time except there were a couple food stands set up. We got in line, tossed our 5 yen coins in the box (5 yen coins are lucky), clapped our hands twice, prayed, and bowed. Then we drew our fortunes from the container. Shinya got a normal fortune and I got 大吉 (daikichi) which means excellent luck. I was very excited!

So that’s about it for the Japanese traditional New Year stuff. I wouldn’t be a true American if I didn’t celebrate the New Year American style at all, so let me tell you about that. Traditionally, Japanese people go back to their home town for the New Year and spend time with their family, but some of my Japanese friends prefer to party for New Year the western way. So on New Year’s Eve, some of my Japanese friends, a lot of my foreign friends, and I met up at an izakaya. It was a huge party!! Maybe about 25 people! That was a lot of fun! After the izakaya, as always, we went to Balabushka for the countdown. I wasn’t that intoxicated, but damn some of my friends were messed up! One person went home early, a couple were throwing up, one was sobbing, and another was asleep in the elevator!

This is half of the group.

Saké master for the night,

The obligatory Stephanie & Akira selfie.

Fun times at Balabushka as always! Haha.

I decided I wanted to spend the first couple hours of the New Year dancing, so I went to one of my favorite clubs for like two hours and rocked the dance floor. One of the best things about New Years in Japan is that there is NO LAST TRAIN!!!! Trains run all night since families are out doing hatsumoude. I took advantage of this and decided I would start making my way home around 2 am. I wanted to stop at one of my other regular bars on the way home to wish the staff a happy New Year. I ended up chilling there for like an hour and a half. I met some girls from Mongolia and a guy from Spain and had fun conversations with them.

I hopped back on the train to go home at about 3:30, excited to be taking advantage of the train at this hour. I was dead tired though. Since it’s a half hour ride to my station, I set my phone alarm to wake me up one minute before arriving, so I could sleep peacefully on the train. Well, stupid me, I woke up an hour later in freaking Kyoto. This is the second time that’s happened… turns out in my sleepiness, and let’s be honest, drunkenness, I set the minute part of the alarm correctly, but forgot to change the hour, so my alarm never went off. I looked at when the next train was, and even though they were running all night, there were very few. The next train was in 45 minutes!! It was freezing out, and I had forgotten my scarf at the bar. I decided to sleep for a few hours at a nearby manga-kissa. It was definitely a good choice. I probably would’ve died in the cold lol. So despite the fact the trains were running all night, I actually didn’t end up getting home until about 10 am! I was still energetic enough to go have dinner with my friend on New Year’s Day haha!

One of the best things though is that for the first time this winter season, it snowed on New Year’s Day. It was beautiful, and somehow it didn’t feel like a coincidence. After all, I did get the daikichi fortune. I think it’s going to be a great year for me! I wish you all the best in this new year too!

Found a cute snowman.

My First Christmas in Japan

This past Christmas was the first time in my life I spent Christmas away from my family, and I must say, not being with your family for Christmas really sucks the spirit out of the holiday. Family is what the holiday is all about after all. However, there were some things that helped get me through the time and new things I could experience by not going home.

My family sent me huge box full with presents for each day of the month. I got to open one present a day until Christmas. It was so awesome and meant so much to me! My family also video called me on Christmas Day and Christmas Eve. J Besides those things, I coped by doing several things on my own like decorating my apartment, watching Christmas movies, listening to Christmas radio on iTunes constantly, and eating copious amounts Lindt chocolate truffles.

A box of joy!

My Christmas tree. :)

At work, I gave presentations about Christmas in every class which got me in the spirit a little. I also made cards for and received cards from many of my students. On actual Christmas Day, I taught my English night class of adults, and we played Christmas games, had snacks, and did a gift exchange which was nice.

Cards from my kids.

Since I actually got to stay in Japan throughout the entirety of Christmas, I learned a few things. First, as you may have seen in one of my recent posts, I got to see and experience just how popular winter illuminations are. I learned that Santa costumes are also extremely popular, especially on Christmas Day. Basically everywhere you go, on the street and even in the supermarket, you see people in Santa costumes, men and women. Since Christmas is a couples’ day in Japan, there are a lot of sexy Santa costumes available for women, too. Lol. I actually heard a story from my Japanese pen pal that once he ordered pizza for delivery on Christmas, and the delivery man showed up at his door in a Santa costume. They took a picture together haha! So, I thought I’d join in the Japanese style festivities and wear my own Santa costume on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Random Santa bikers.

Joining in the fun. Haha!

On to the main part of Christmas in Japan, as I just mentioned, it’s a couples’ day. Think like a Christmas themed Valentine’s Day…with cake. Before I get in to that, I should mention that Japanese families (usually ones with younger children) sometimes have small celebrations on Christmas Day in which they eat fried chicken (KFC being most famous) and cake. Santa also may come, but he leaves only one present per child and puts it by their bed, not under the tree.

Back to the main part though, first and foremost Christmas in Japan is a day for lovers to go on expensive dates, exchange gifts, and possibly stay at a hotel together. That is the most traditional way I suppose, but basically the main point is for couples to spend time alone together whether it’s going out for dinner, seeing a movie, etc. Since I have a Japanese boyfriend, I got to experience the real Japanese Christmas. However, since Christmas is not a national holiday in Japan, normal people have to work (I was on Christmas vacation, however, since I’m a teacher). Therefore, Shinya had no idea how late he would have to work, so we couldn’t make a dinner reservation. Instead, we decided to have a date at home. Luckily, he ended up getting off of work pretty early.

I made an Italian style dinner consisting of seafood arrabbiata pasta, garlic toast, and salad. After dinner we exchanged presents and ate Christmas cake which was really fun. I got him random stuff like clothes, and itunes card, and chocolate, and he got me a nice bath set from the Body Shop. The cake was really delicious. Usually you preorder them, which is what I did. I picked a raspberry sauce one even though strawberry and whipped cream cakes are more popular. The cake was so pretty! There were two whole raspberries hidden inside. We each got one. Overall, it was a fun, romantic night, and I’m glad I could experience it. I hope you all had a nice holiday season!

My nice bath set from Shinya.

Christmas cake!