I can't believe it is 2012. I'm sure I'm not the only one in a slight daze at that thought. Another year gone by, another that has come. Time trudges on!
I think it is going to be an interesting year. 5 months of it will be here in Japan and the rest will be packed full of other things...like college!
Oh, but that thought is for later.
I got to skype with some friends yesterday morning, New Year's Eve morning. It had been a while since I'd seen their faces or talked to them, so it was fun:) I'm really grateful to have such good friends! I am excited to go back to them and many others in May, but till then, I will fully enjoy my time here.
So, in Japan New Years is the BIGGEST holiday of the year. While in America we have the great big crazy New Years Eve party, in Japan it is most for the New Years day that they celebrate. And I believe traditionally (or even when my mother was growing up in Japan) that the first...3 days of the year were all spent celebrating and all the stores were closed and everyone at home. It isn't like that anymore really, because stores are open and many people can't get all three days off work. But for the past couple days I've been helping Obachan and Ema make "osechi" or traditional New Year's dishes. We went shopping for the ingredients a couple days ago, the stores were packed! Not only of people but of special New Years items. Racks of New Year's decorations, braided grass with ornamental oranges, or lobsters, fern fronds, flowers, ribbons and thread balls. There were trays and trays of ready made "osechi" and then the ingredients squeezed into the shelves; kuromame (black bean, but not like ours), kazunoko (pickled fish eggs only eaten at New Years), decortaed fish pastes and tempuras...and all the rest! Every food has a meaning, which is why you eat it at the New Years.
We went home and for the last two days of the year we prepped the food, did a little cleaning and went to our grandparents' grave to clean it and pray- which are all things done for the New Year. On New Years Eve night we ate soba, which is traditionally what everyone eats on that night. The tempura in that soba had a rabit and a dragon burned into it - the rabit for 2011 and the dragon for 2012. The year of the DRAGAON! Sounds cool:)
The food we prepped, as I said before, all has meanings. The black beans are so that we can work hard, essentially, till our skin is black from the sun. There is a dish where gobo (burdoc) is cut into little sticks and one end pounded so that it looks frayed, standing for our life having many options and paths. Lenkon (lotus root) because of the holes it has that runs through the root stands for being able to see into the future or good sight (like looking through the holes into what is beyond). The fish eggs (kazunoko) stand for a big family, our descendants. Little fish cooked crunchy with soy sauce and sugar stand for our ancestors. Daikon with carrots stands for celebration (red and white). Sweet potato and chestnut dish stands for becoming rich along with an baked egg dish (because it is golden). There is kombu that is tied into knots that stands for joy. Konyaku is also twisted.
We eat the soba noodles for dinner the night before because the soba noodles are dark, to stand also for hard work but noodles are long to stand for long life. Sounds all good to me! I should eat a lot of it all, and so I will be rich, hard working, mother of many, insightful and have many opportunities! Also I recieved a lot of luck today, and we don't take baths today in fear of washing all that good luck away. Wouldn't want to do that!
This morning we woke up at 8 and arranged the food and then around 9, sat down to enjoy it. Everyone drank a little warm sake from the same cup before we ate all the yummy food. It was so yummy! I love it all! I especially enjoy kazunoko because I can hardly ever eat it but it is one of my favorites:) Crunchy and poppy and delicious in flavor. There was also ozoni, mochi soup with vegetables, grilled fish, ham, chicken, potatoes and more! At the end there was only a little bit of the sweet potatoes and kuromame left. Ema urged Ojichan to finish the sweet potatoes, "eat it all so you will get rich for me!" And we gave Kazu the kuromame to finish since he starts work in the spring. After that we ate anko paste treats in different shapes. I ate a pink one in the shape of a plum blossom, the plum blossom is the first blossom of a tree in the spring to bloom. Obachan ate a golden one in the shape of turtle, for long life, 10,000 years! Ema ate a pine tree shaped one, the needles stay green all year so it is strong and long lasting. Kazu ate one that was black beans, again for hard work! And Ojichan ate one that looked like the barrel that people used to keep rice in, once again for wealth and he also ate one in the shape of a crane, for 1,000 years of life. It was fun, especially feeding Ojichan everything that had to do with becoming wealthy:) His insides are yellow by now!
After we ate we hung out and around 12:00 Obachan and Ema and I went to see the movie "New Year's Eve". It is an American movie packed with famous people. It was very cute, not the normal movie I watch, but I was glad that I did see it. My dose of America and definitely a full dose of cute, seemingly perfect happy endings. Just makes me wanna cry! haha
But the mall we went to was PACKED. Because all the stores were selling those bags of random stuff for cheap. The parking was crazy and there were cars sprawled everywhere. People too, it was awful to walk around because of how many people were there. I thought about how soon I'm going to Osaka and it is crowded and filled with many fashionable people and everywhere I go will be similar to this mall. Luckily I will be in the care of Mom's good friends who I love, being along in a big city isn't my thing...though I think it will be fun for the couple days I will be in Hokkaido because there will be so much to see for the Snow Festival!
2012! My 19th year on this earth!
Everyone, Happy New Year! I hope...everyone had a good last year and a better this year.
Take care!
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