Takemizuwake Shrine on a snowy New Year's Day, 2010

The New Year holiday in Japan always means the same thing:  Kohaku, road races, tempura, temple visits and cold weather.  I never liked it so much but this year is different!

I actually enjoyed the holiday this year!  Probably it had something to do with the fact that I was not in front of the TV for much of it.  There is a popular concert show called Kohaku on NHK that everybody watches here.  It is basically 5 hours of bad music, bad hairstyles, bad fashion and bad jokes.  This year, I pretty much stayed away from it, with the exception of the 3 minutes they had Susan Boyle on it.  And on New Year’s Day, we woke up to snow, making our trip to the local shrine a very pleasant one.

The trees had snow all clinging to their branches, making a perfectly Japanese winter wonderland scene, complete with a line of people waiting to do their little clap-and-pray o-mairi at the shrine.  We didn’t bother waiting in that long line, but the sight alone was worth it.

In the afternoon, we headed over to Tomomi’s parents’ house and had a big meal.  The food of choice for New Years is tempura and mochi, a kind of sticky, chewy goo made from rice that someone in Japan chokes to death on every year during this holiday.  That didn’t happen to us, thank God!  But we all sat around the low table, with our legs roasting under the kotatsu, and enjoyed each other’s company.  The TV was on in the other room, and someone was over there watching it, but I never bothered to find out who.  Being in a room with no TV and having lots of great conversation is what made the holiday fun for me.  I hope future New Years will be the same!

And if this holiday is any indication, I suspect 2010 will be a good year.  Let’s hope so!