Celebrating New Years the Japanese Way

In Japan, New Years is the biggest holiday of the year. We had a full day of celebrating in the Japanese style. December 31 is a day of preparation, especially for the woman of the house. She prepares very special food for the New Years bento box. Celia had purchased a book with recipes for this bento box, but really it is all about presentation. Colin and I joined in the preparatons by making gyoza.


We began new years day by attending a church service at one of the largest Christian churches in Sapporo.
Following the service, we were served very strong tea and a sweet candy made of red beans.

This was followed by a wonderful lunch with many interesting Japanese dishes.

During the lunch, they demonstrated rice pounding to make a sweet treat called mochi.

Hot rice is placed in a wooden tub. The man's job (Colin helped out...) is to pound the rice into a sticky pulp. The woman's job is to knead the rice between each pound, add water, and pull her hand out in the nick of time. We think Colin was actually on the upstroke in this picture, because he didn't nail her hand. She was really fast, too.

Once it is smooth, the women go to work forming it into balls, with a smaller ball of sweet tasting bean paste in the middle. Oh, it was so good...

So after all that wonderful Christian fellowship, we went to the Shinto Shrine to watch masses of people make their yearly trek to seek good health and good fortune from an unknown god. The Japanese police do very well at crowd control. they put some space between each group, probably so that no one would get trampled should people from behind start pushing. Apparently about 700,000 people visit the shrine over a three day period.

People write their wish for the year and tie it to a frame. They also toss money onto the steps of the shrine, clap their hands and say a prayer. We did not participate in any of this; we were only there to observe.

This is the scene in the courtyard of the shrine.

After leaving the courtyard, we were directed down a long row of carnival type booths, selling food, cotton candy in colorful bags (I guess that's food too), souvineers such as these tiger masks (for the year of the tiger), and fortunes.

Once back at home, we put together our artful bento box and ate a festive meal.