Auld Lang Syne
Proudly one day ahead of the United States, tonight I will reach 2004 before all my friends. On New Year's eve and New Year's even only the trains run all night. But I will be staying in. There's nothing I want to do that would feel right (and not take obscene amounts of money), so I'm staying home with my host family to take care of my own business.
New Years is certainly a special time for the Japanese. It's easy to tell, because there are traditional decorations of bamboo, straw and pine on every house and store. Everything besides the largest stores and companies are closed-- not just for today and tomorrow but some for several days at a time. Not only the banks (regular hours 9AM-3PM) but also the ATMs (which are already only open from morning till night) are closed from yesterday until the third. Why not have 24 hour ATMs? Don't ask me... Japan is a mystery.
My family may not be very traditional- they won't be paying a visit to any shrine unless I insist- but they've spent the last two days cleaning the house in traditional Japanese fashion. I even scoured my own room. The importance of O-souji (honorable cleaning) is to open your house to the gods and to the new year with cleanliness and good feeling. My guess is that it's the only time of year they really clean... and not *that* thoroughly. I got rid of as much dust as I could to do my part.
It does make me happy to see the New Year's decorations up around the house. In a way, I wish they were there all year. It gives this small, dingy place a happier, more ethnic feeling and some personality that it lacks. I'll be sad to see them go.
Tonight we eat Soba and Mochi, the traditional Japanese New Year's foods. Amusingly (yet sadly), my host mother tells me that many people die on New Years. Not from drinking or accidents, but from choking on mochi... a thick, pasty dessert made from rice products. It's not the young, of course, but the elderly who forget to chew or whose dentures lodge in their own throats. I've heard from several sources that each year many fall victim to Death by Mochi. I know it's pathetic but I can't help laughing.
Find your joy, wherever you are tonight. I'll try to find mine.
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