If you don't get what I mean, you clearly didn't read the previous blog, or have no idea of the Chinese Astrological Calendar. 2011, Year of the Sheep, has now been surpassed by 2012, Year of the Dragon, an auspicious year in both Chinese and Japanese cultures.
For me, the 31st and 1st were indeed auspicious, but not for it being the time of the dragon, more so because it was my first ever New Years in a culture other than mine, so it was like being 1 year old again, that is, everything is new.
New Years Eve was a very domestic day, with the 'Daisoji' happening, the big clean of the year, an event dreaded by most young people. However my family had exercised some forethought and had been doing micro soji for several weeks, thus the dai part of daisoji (dai meaning big) wasn't as big as I'm sure some families' were. Tomo arrived home from Tsukuba that day, joining Mamoru who had arrived two days before. I spent New Years Eve doing not much, helping out where I could, but generally being really quite lazy.
As midnight approached, we had New Years Soba, noodles eaten on the last day of the year, supposedly to help bring about happiness in the new year. Looked exactly like any other hot soba I've eaten, so much so that I didn't take a photo and had to use a google stock image as a substitute for those of you who don't know what soba looks like.
I fell asleep on the sofa whilst watching the crazy New Years Eve Japanese game shows with my family, and was woken at about 11.58 to go out to Samukawa Shrine with Akira and Tomo for Hatsumode. Hatsumode begins at midnight of Jan 1, and goes for about three days, and is a time when Japanese people take time off work (difficult for them to do it seems), and to a shrine or temple to pray for happiness and success in the coming year. I think that given the complete mess 2011 was for Japan that Hatsumode is important for them this year, and at Samukawa I was met by thousands of other Japanese.
Shrines seem to do quite well out of New Years, as people buy various charms and wards for good luck, which take the form of various bells, tags, paper fortunes, etc. Though one charm I found particularly unique was this;
Japanese Shrines sell arrows. Admittedly these particular ones were devoid of heads, but there were more expensive ones with them. The arrows come attached with a fortune for the year, some bells for gaining the attention of the Gods, and a wish written on a special wooden board, one side of which is painted to look like a dragon, for this is the Year of the Dragon. Most Japanese families have a little family shrine in their houses, in which are contained arrows, one for each person. As I was as yet devoid of an arrow, Akira very kindly bought one for me, making me even more Japanese. The reason for it being an arrow is so that with it you may kill any demons or bad luck that may want to plague you with bad luck during the year, though how a headless arrow can do that I am unsure. Should make it easier for the customs people though I hope.
Returning home late/early (about 3am) depending on how you look at it, straight into bed, and was woken at 9ish for New Years Breakfast, which was quite spectacular. Various foodstuffs were put in an elaborate food box which is used for special occassions only, as well as a variety of other pickled, salted and steamed foods. The main course was a soup containing all manner of vegetables and chicken in a miso base, and at the bottom of the bowl was a slice of mochi about the size of a playing card.
Following breakfast I dozed for a bit on the couch, much like I did on New Years Eve, and was woken for lunch. I've decided that during New Years the Japanese live around 5 verbs- eat, drink, sleep, wake, pray. And so for the next 3 days, this is what I did. The meals are exactly the same, they are only eaten around this time, thus they are not boring to me, and I have a nice little spot on the couch now where I have my siesta.
So while the eat drink sleep and wake aspects of New Years Celebrations here do not warrant much more explanation, the praying aspect does. Following lunch on the 1st we went to the local Imasato Shrine, a very small one that services my neighbourhood, Imasato. After donating some money there, ringing the bell to get the attention of the gods again. I cannot see how the Gods can get anything done or get any sleep if they have to come and bless the person ringing the bell whenever they ring it, must disrupt their day something chronic.
One of the 5 verbs finished for the day, we proceeded to do the other 4.
On the second, Mamoru's fiance, Yoko, came from Chiba Prefecture to celebrate New Years with her soon to be family. As soon as she arrived we went off to Midori's mother's house, where all of her family gather for a New Years lunch party. Thinking it would be immensly awkward for me, being of Japanese speaking ability akin to that of a 6 year old, and as I didn't know most of them. However I couldn't have been further from the truth. They were all very accomodating, and Midori's brother and sister even gave me a New Years gift which parents/aunts and uncles give to the children in a family, so I must have meant more to them that I though, which is always a nice feeling. Plenty of food was eaten, and Midori had brought with her the Tim Tams that I had recieved for Christmas (Thankyou Meg, they went to good use), and I educated my family in the ways of Tim Tam Slams. For those of you who don't know, here's a good YouTube link to watch, whilst it doesn't capture the drama involved, from a technical point of view it's pretty well spot on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MQZX1nLOJ4
It's usually a rather messy process for first timers, and Mamoru was no exception. As he put the molten Tim Tam in his mouth as it was about to implode on him, he laughed, spraying chocolatey magma, much to our amusement. Rushing to the sink to wash his mouth and face, he returned still with fragments of Tim Tam approaching his ear. In all my years of doing and witnessing Tim Tam Slams, that was the single greatest one, something I pointed out to everyone.
Following that had a family picture, though half the family I have little to no idea as to their names, but if I use the Japanese equivalent of John or Jack, should be fine. So most of them are called Tanaka or Nakamura as of now.
Akira, Tomo, Midori, Yoko, Mamoru and Toroi
Came home, farewelled Yoko as she departed again for Chiba, had a nap, and then had dinner. All 5 of 5 verbs were done for the day.
In a dash of novelty, that night we used my Christmas present, the Calligraphy Set, for the first time, in the first Calligraphy of the Year. Another important occasion in the New Year Calendar, you write the kanji with the meaning you hope the New Year will bring about. But before that could happen, I had to practice the use of the brush, and even before that, I had to make the ink. I have done Calligraphy in both NZ and Japan, every year for 4 years now, but every time the ink I used was from a bottle.
Making Ink the traditional way
Ink made and ready to go, I set about practising stroke technique on newspaper, getting the proportions of the kanji correct, and applying the right amount of ink. Several newspapers later, I produced a kanji on one of the sheets of nice paper that were included in my Calligraphy kit.
Applying the first strokes
We all wrote a kanji representing our desires for the coming year, as shown below.
Wishing for retirement, a healthy body, peace of mind and university credits, left to right.
Today Akira's brother and sister in law, the same who I met in late August for my first ever Shinto Experience, as documented in http://troyunderthekanagawansun.blogspot.com/2011/08/shinto-experience.html, came for morning tea. They were then going to Hatsumode at the same shrine as we went to in August, an asked if I wanted to come with them, there were going to be Sumo wrestlers there as a part of the celebrations. Having never seen a Sumo wrestler in the flesh (though I'm sure that one of the boys who goes to the primary school next to Tsurumine would make an excellent Sumo candidate), I said count me in.
They first took me to a Washoku (Japanese cusine) restaurant, where I had sukiyaki, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukiyaki a food I first had on my first night of host family life, 2009 in Nagoya, where it became my favourite Japanese meal of that year. It was eclipsed in 2010 by Soba, but late 2011, after having it several times, it has retaken its place at the top, and so I felt compelled to have it today.
Leaving the restaurant, drove to the Temple where there were already crowds waiting, but we were sufficiently early to get a relatively good spot, and I was easily half a head taller than the next tallest person, so I could have been alright anywhere to be perfectly honest. After about ten minutes, a procession of Shinto Priests and Priestesses accompanied by Sumo wrestlers made their way down the path and into the temple. Subsequently I was told that a few of the Sumo were quite famous, though this meant very little to me at all.
While the procession were all in the temple we could hear the rthymn of drums emanating from the inside, sounded a lot like the event in August. As we waited for them to come out, we approaced the front of the temple, made a donation and then went to the private Shinto Shrine where the service for Akira's father was held in August, made another donation, and then went to an Omikuji stall, to get our fortune for the year. For a nominal donation, you shake a long wooden cylinder until a numbered rod drops out. The number on the rod corresponds to a drawer, in which is contained your fortune. My number pertained to a fortune with the kanji 'daikichi', kichi meaning fortune, and dai meaning big. If you have small kichi it is not so good, just kichi is perfectly middle of the road, and big kichi is very good indeed. So that's good, I'm set for the year now.
The procession was preparing to leave the temple, and a group of Japanese wearing light robes came carrying a mobile shrine on their shoulders, setting it on stands so that it faced the front of the temple.
This is the very same one I saw and photographed in August, as shown below
The Procession emerged from the temple doors, and so the portable shrine was once again lifted from its stand, and carried down the temple road in a way that I can't really describe, so watch the short movie I made.
With the cries of the carriers still audible, some of the procession moved down the path, but a few of the (so I hear) more famous sumo stayed at the front of the temple and threw into the crowd Mochi. The little rice balls are apparently special, being made by the Priests of the temple, if you get one it is very good luck. Having such a distinct height advantage worked in my favour, and I managed to grasp one of the little white balls, sealed in a little plastic bag, as is the Japanese way, everything being individually wrapped. So from my Omikuji being exceptionally lucky, plus getting a mochi thrown by a Sumo wrestler, not to mention all the bell ringing, arrow recieving, clapping and coin throwing I've been doing in temples over the past few days, I must have enough luck to last a life time.
And that more or less concluded my New Years celebrations in Japan, I think I will return to Samukawa Shrine this week sometime, I had never been prior to January 1, and wanted to have a better look around, but the darkness and mass of people prevented me from doing so. I'm headed to Kamakura on Friday to meet up with Claire, another AFSer, and then on Saturday I'm headed to Disneyland with some of the AFSers from my chapter, not an AFS event though.
Hope all your New Years events went well, and that the new year favours you with good luck (though probably not as good as mine, that would take a lot of work to amass as much good luck as I have over the past few days)
Sayonara for now from Under the Kanagawan Sun, I'm now thinking that it's the late afternoon (the meaning of this will be revealed in a later blog)
Toroi
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