初詣 (hatsumoude) First shrine visit in the New Year!

Hatsumoude is the first shrine visit of the year in Japan. It is for wishes and luck for the new year, good luck charms are bought, etc. It's crazy. My friends went to Meiji Shrine on the 1st and said it was insanely crowded. I went to Kamakura on the 3rd and visited the Hachimangu Shrine, it was still insanely crowded. Generally the first week of January is when everyone does Hatsumoude so all the major shrines are crowded.

Walking to the shrine

Japanese style Candy Apples

There were lots of stalls set up in front of/on the way to the Shrine

Masks!

The inner part of the shrine

This stump is what remains of a famously old tree that was the symbol of this shrine. During the tsunami it fell over, but there is a new one being planted.

Wishes for the new year

 

Good luck charms for sale

crowds of people

We went for lunch afterwards with my mom's friend Funaki-san. Funaki-san was a Seigakuin parent (a friend of Alex).

New Years Food

 We were able to meet with Baba Sensei (Brendan's Japanese teacher way back when) and her family. We were invited for a traditional New Years Dinner. Baba Sensei's mother is a cooking teacher so she took the time and effort to make the traditional meal. Nowadays you can buy it pre-made...

Megumi-chan, me, Pampers, Big T, Kota-kun, Baba Sensei

The beautifully arranged table. This meal is usually prepared before December 31st so that the wife/mother can rest from cooking and enjoy the New Years Holiday. 

Veggies that were carefully cut and carved for decoration.  As my dad always says, 'eye appeal is half the meal'

Pampers and Kota-kun. (side note: Kota-kun was just recently on a NHK Japanese television show called Gou - Himetachi no Sengoku. It's a historical drama and pretty cool! He played the son of the main character)

Megumi-chan and me!

お誕生日おめでとう！ Happy Birthday!

Because I'm not able to say it in person, wanted to do a quick birthday post for Nana! Hope you have a wonderful day! お誕生日おめでとう!

テレビ TV!

There is a TV show in Japan that is called 逃走中(tousouchuu). Apparently there is an American version of the game called, Run For the Money. It airs about 9 times a year, and it's really entertaining! There are maybe 20 people at the beginning and they are dressed in brightly colored clothing, and their main objective is to run away from the 'hunters' until a certain amount of time passes and then they get money! Sounds easy, right? Well, usually the escapees are celebrities and the hunters are athletes. The video clip below might help you visualize it a little bit better. For one of my classes I had to do a presentation on a Japanese tv or movie. My group decided to present on this game. For our presentation we made a movie depicting our version of the game... I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. It's basically just us fooling around in front of the dorm on a Saturday.

This is our version, starring Emelie and me as escapees and Takashi as a hunter.

Anyways! The first 逃走中of the new year was on tv last night and we watched it, not exactly realizing just how long this show is. It started at 7pm and went until about 10pm. It was worth it though. The best part was that while watching this show, I realized that this episode was filmed at Edo Mura! It was a place I had just recently been to so watching them run around a place I could easily recognize was pretty cool. 

Also- another exciting side note! Pampers, Big T, and I were recently interviewed in Shibuya for Japanese TV. They asked us what kind of Japanese food we liked. The interview was about 5 minutes long. Honestly, you see people with cameras and microphones all the time in Shibuya so I thought nothing of it.... and then someone (a Japanese friend) said that she saw me on TV! I'm not sure what channel or show it was for though.

江戸村（Edo Mura) Edo Wonderland

While my parents were visiting, we had a chance to visit Nikko with my mom's cousin, Tatsuru. Nikko is a little bit north of Tokyo, about two hours or so. I say or so because on the way there we took the Shinkansen (bullet train!) so the ride in was easy, breezy, and fast. Our return trip was a little bit longer because we took a private rail home to avoid the crowds of people. (For future reference, if you are visiting Japan during お正月 New Years, be prepared to brace yourself for the crowds of people visiting shrines during the first week of January for 初詣hatsumoude.) Edo Mura was really cool if you're interested in Japanese history, I'd describe it as kind of a renaissance fair for Japan. It is set up like an old Edo Village and there are reenactments and people who don't break character. Here's the website in case anyone is planning a trip to Japan:- http://www.edowonderland.net/  it's in Japanese but there is a translated page for English!

It says Edo Wonderland, but 江戸村（Edo Mura) means Edo Village..

Japanese Calligraphy 書道(shodou)

This was the entrance to a Ninja House. It was like you're basic house of mirrors. There were trick doors, dark corridors, a room of mirrors, etc. Tatsuru told us that when he visited Edo Mura with his parents (my mom's aunt and uncle) his dad couldn't figure out where the door was in one of the rooms so he just turned himself around and came out the entrance. We managed to make it through the whole thing without any struggles this time though.

Geta - old style shoes. Check out the ones on the bottom though, don't they look like something you might see Lady Gaga sporting?

Since we were north of Tokyo, it was so cold! There wasn't any snow on the ground but you could see snow capped mountains. Also, the fake lake in Edo Village was partially frozen. 

Target practice

These buckets were filled with water and used to put out fires. 

Dad, Mom, and Tatsuru waiting in line for some お汁粉(o-shiruko). It's a sweet red bean soup, may or may not contain chunks of mochi (rice paste cake) in it. 

The guy was good, he didn't break character!

Pampers and her cousin enjoying their snack of お汁粉

pretty fabrics!

There were lots of food stalls in one area that were supposed to represent the 下町(shita-machi) downtown areas of the Edo Village.

This is a statue of the New Years Dragon

One of the shows we watched was about an 花魁(oiran). Oiran were courtesans. The show was pretty entertaining because they picked a poor man from the audience to play the role of her guest. It was all in ancient-y Japanese so it was even more difficult to understand. It was fun though, and the emcee was very entertaining, his face was very expressive.

明けましておめでとう! Happy New Year!!

This post is some what of a guest post from Emelie since I didn't actually attend this カウントダウン(Countdown) for New Years. It's an interesting tidbit about Japan's biggest holiday so I figured somebody would want to read about it. Enjoy!

 Happy new year everybody! Hope everyone has enjoyed celebrating the new year!
 I had an awesome time, not what i expect on new years eve, i.e no alcohol/drunkness/fighting. It was different but special nonetheless! New years eve is traditionally spent with your family at home watching Tv and eating special new years food like Soba noodles(think they give you long life), so because of that, none of our Japanese friends were with us to celebrate. Normally in Japan, on new years eve, you go to a shrine at midnight and ring in  the new year with a pray. We wanted to the traditional thing -plus no one fancied going clubbing- so we went to a temple.  The temple we went to is Zojoji temple which is right infront of Tokyo Tower, i went there with my host family awhile back but it was a lot ore crowded this time around! We heard that if you stand in a queue, the first 3000 people will recieve a balloon and then at the stroke of mignight we release them all into the air to let them float away. Along with your balloon you get a little wish card for you to write your wish!

(The wish form to the substitution of the balloon ended and the distribution of the form ..necessity.. wish ended)

We did stand in line for awhile but it was totes worth it! The atmosphere was so relaxed yet very efficient! There werea couple of gaijin(westerners) around us that kind of made us embarressed to be white, i.e spitting, drinking etc. But we just shuffled away from them and chilled out till the countdown started!

I only realised how CROWDED it was when i tried to go to the toilet on the otherside of the temple…i didnt thik i would make it out alive. Just.so.rammed. incredible. But nay worries, after being hit in the face a couple of times with a balloon, i made it safely to the toilet Came back just in time for the countdown! Pretty much straight after the countdown we headed home and chilled in the living room for a bit

Zojoji Temple (near Tokyo Tower)

Tokyo Tower

Letting the balloons off!

Here's a video of the releasing of the balloons!

お正月（oshougatsu) New Years Holidays!

お正月(oshougatsu) is one of the biggest holidays in Japan. It is very, very different from the New Years that is celebrated in the western half of the world. There are tons of preparations that must happen before the 31st of December, which usually involve cleaning, decorating, and cooking special dishes. This year is the year of the Dragon! All of these preparations happen before 大晦日(Oomisoka- New Years Eve), so everyone is pretty busy around this time of year. There are different ways of celebrating 大晦日 in Japan, the most traditional way is usually in the home with family. Everyone goes back to their place of origin (basically just their parent's house) and then more preparations happen and then celebrations of the New Year and enjoying family time. Some young people in Japan do participate in カウントダウン(countdown) but even that is a little different. A few of my friends (mostly the international one's) celebrated in a different way so I'll do a post about that one soon. 

This is 鏡餅(kagami mochi - mirror rice cake) You can find this in just about any super market in Japan right now, except they don't seem very traditional. I think the one's in the super markets are geared for the lazy people (okay, maybe they're just busy) who can't be bothered to make it from scratch. The white bit is the mochi (rice cake) and it is topped with a だいだい(daidai) which is a variety of a bitter orange. (this is all according to wikipedia so I do apologize if I'm getting this wrong). The two different sized mochi are supposed to symbolize the going and coming years, the daidai represents the continuation of a family from generation to generation.

More traditional New Years decorations! You see these just about everywhere you look in Japan. My mom took a bunch of pictures, I just have to wait for her to email them to me or upload to facebook.. 

お節料理(Osechi ryouri) Traditional New Years Food

Each ingredient has a special meaning (good health, good harvest, happiness, prosperity, etc) and yellow colored dishes are supposed to represent prosperity, the red/pink and white dishes represent celebration colors, and the beans represent a wish for good health. The Osechi is all prepared a few days before New Years so that there is no need to cook for a few days. Since preparing all of this can be quite time consuming, you can actually order them pre-made at some supermarkets! There are actually a variety of different Osechi in Japan, it's not one set style or anything. Another New Years-y dish is called お雑煮(ozoni) it's another special dish with mochi in it!