Welcome the year of the cow! 2008 seemed to just fly by, not to say that it wasn’t eventful.
Celebrating New Year’s Eve in Tokyo is generally quieter compared to the New Year’s Eve celebrations I grew up with, which often consisted of loud cheers, noisemakers, champagne or some sort of inebriating liquid. Here, we eat soba for dinner (and I think everyone really does eat soba) and as the clock strikes midnight, many households watch the Kohaku Uta Gassen, a special New Year’s Eve program featuring popular singers performing live. Some families go to a temple after midnight to pray for good wishes for the new year.
It was a bit hard getting used to New Year’s Eve here at first, but this year I found that I actually appreciated this quieter, more somewhat introspective type of New Year celebration, not feeling any pressure to have to “do something” and just enjoying the peacefulness of relaxing with the family then having our own little countdown with an excited and wide-awake four year old.
In Japan, the days preceding New Year’s Eve are full of preparations. People spend the few days before December 31st cleaning their homes from top to bottom, inside and out, and preparing some food for the next few days (osechi – which I will try to learn one year) since many small mom and pop shops and supermarkets are closed for a few days. The idea is that you prepare everything before New Year’s Eve and the first three days of the new year are spent doing nothing but relaxing. I like this practice of thoroughly cleaning the house before the new year, but I must admit I am still not able to put it much into practice. I still save most of the cleaning for Spring.
Happy New Year! Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!