New beginnings

I'm not a superstitious or religious person but for some reason I sense -or hope- that 2007 will be a fortuitous year... I've always considered 7 to be my lucky number (in October V & I will incidentally celebrate our seventh anniversary) but maybe the feeling also stems from all the symbolism that surrounds the new year in Japan. At home or in New Zealand the end of December is traditionally all about family, presents, too much food & partying 'till the morning but here the element of a new beginning is quite central to all New Year's activities. People pay outstanding debts, trade in old Shinto amulets for new ones and spend time doing the Osoji - a giant clean-up where every nook and cranny of the home gets scrubbed & all the piled-up junk is thrown out. The idea of tying up loose ends and discarding all unnessecary items & habits appeals to me in a big way; it makes January 1 a real new beginning! The Japanese believe these efforts will provide a proper welcome for the toshigami, the New Year's god of happiness. Bring it on!

31 December 2006: after our semi-drunken revellery in an izakaya Yukino, Emi, Keiko, Vaughan & me took a train to witness a traditional Japanese New Year's Eve custom. Twenty minutes before midnight we arrived at a Buddhist temple, just in time to hear the giant temple bell ringing 108 times, which ensures that the 108 earthly evils aren't repeated in the New Year. A real countdown isn't part of this ceremony, so the five of us yelled out '10, 9, 8, ...' ourselves, to the bemusement of onlookers. Yet nothing could beat the startled looks on our Japanese friends' faces when I gave them the Belgian celebratory greeting of 3 kisses on the cheeks; apparently this was quite a novel experience for them! Afterwards we continued the traditional Japanese New Year's festivities by participating in hatsumode, the year's first shrine visit. This involved us lining up amongst a huge crowd of worshippers until 2.30 in the morning, but despite the queues & the freezing cold it was sooo worth it! Both Vaughan & I believe it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience so who cares about a few physical discomforts, right? Photos of the impressive midnight scenes at Dazaifu shrine are unfortunately non-existent as my camera refused to work. Not symbolic of this year I hope...

January 1st was spent recovering, lazying around the house watching dvd's and feasting on Vaughan's heavenly white chocolate mouse :-). On the 2nd though we were out for part II of the New-Year-in-Japan experience. Vaughan's private student Kazuko has be one of the most generous & hospitable people ever because after treating us to chankonabe a week before, we were now invited to her home for a New Year's meal. As part of the celebrations here it is traditional to enjoy the special New Year's cuisine, known as Osechi Ryouri. These days many households buy pre-packaged sets from departments stores but we were lucky enough to taste the home-made version, prepared by Kazuko during 1,5 days of hard labour (thank god the dishes last for 3 days so the poor woman could have a break!). Osechi consists of dozens of delicacies arranged in decorative lacquered boxes, and each particular dish & type of food has a different superstitious meaning, such as good health, fertility, good harvest, happiness, long life, ... Some of the most popular dishes like herring roe, fish eggs and black beans don't sound too appealing but the whole meal was actually unbelievably tasty. The conversation flowed freely, just like the home-made umeshu (plum wine) & hot sake they kept serving us. Result: two rather tipsy foreigners on the train home! Great start to 2007 :-).