New Year's Eve 2009
Tim and I arrived home in Japan on December 30 so that we could celebrate New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in Japan. We will most likely travel to Australia or somewhere else in Asia next year so we wanted to experience a Japanese New Year. It is the single most important holiday in Japan. It is all about family and friends...mostly family. Japanese people also do a major yearly cleaning for the New Year.
We were EXTREMELY jet-lagged on December 31 and it wasn't looking like we would actually be awake to celebrate but Maureen talked us into it thankfully. The three of us braved the cold and headed to the local Atago Shrine around 11:30pm to be there to ring in 2010 at midnight. Japanese people go to three shrines beginning at midnight and it continues for at least three days into the new year. We drank sacred sake that Maureen brought and stood in a really long line to wait to pray. It was a wonderful experience! I would have kicked myself in the rear if we hadn't gone!
After spending time at the shrine, we started walking down to head home when we saw another little shrine area with a bell. SO glad we walked in!!! Every shrine has a bell that they ring 108 times at midnight. We just happened to be 3 of the 108 people lucky enough to ring the bell!!!
Tim and I had a traditional champagne toast when we got home. Warmed us up after the cold!!!
Pictures of New Year's Eve 2009:
New Year's Day 2010
Tim and I were honored to be invited to spend New Year's Day with our Japanese friends, Max and Yuri and Max's family. This is a rare experience for gaijin! Max picked us up around 11am to go to his parent's home which is nearby.
We were welcomed with open arms and invited to sit under the kotatsu that was nice and toasty warm. Max and his dad wore kimonos. We started the luncheon by going into another room where they have a shrine. They prayed for their ancestors.
We gathered around the table for a sake passing ceremony. Afterwards, we enjoyed a delicious traditional Japanese New Year's feast. The children received their New Year's money from family and played games. The most exciting part of the afternoon was when Max's mother taught us calligraphy! She made us each choose a word or phrase to write. Tim chose "New Year" and I chose "Yuki" (snow). We had to practice and practice and practice until we got it right. What an awesome experience!
No, we didn't eat black-eyed peas this year...EEK, but we did eat traditional Japanese food and had an awesome experience! Thank
you, Max, Yuri, and family for allowing us to experience such an awesome celebration!!!
More on the Japanese New Year (food, postcard tradition, etc.):
Pictures of New Year's Day 2010:
No comments:
Post a Comment