More Japanese New Year celebration description (see previous post for first part).
In the evening we had a meal that had numerous traditional dishes. I failed to understand why these particular dishes were included other than "that's the way it is". The dishes that were special were soba (noodles), some kind of thing that reminded me of roll mop herring but wasn't quite, konyaku strips in egg and another shredded vegetable whose name totally escaped me. We also had sashimi cut from an enomous fish but I understand that that was merely for fun... Then the family settled down to watch some NHK music show, again this seems to be one of those traditional things like the Queen's Speech, although this one went on considerably longer and was rather more lively with a wide variety of generally dire music styles from the endless crooning and wailing of enka to the bouncing of a wide variety of interchangeable teenage pop idols. Just before midnight we set out in a snowstorm to visit the local shrine. This was only the second time I've been in a shrine during a "service" and the first was a posh wedding which was rather different. Somehow the whole thing reminded me rather of the Russian Orthodox services I've been dragged to now and then. There was the same majesty of the setting and the robes of the participants, the same utter incapability of the service to run anything like "on time", and the same repition of formalized movements (in this case a double clap rather than crossing oneself). The fact that the congregation had very little to do for most of the time except kneel and watch was also similar. One difference was the drumming, which is not an instrument usual in Orthodox services... It all ended with the priest wishing all "Akemashita omedetou gozaimasu" (i.e. happy new year more or less) to which we all responded with the same. Then the congregation scooted around on its knees and did the same to each other - fortunately there wasn't a large congregation - and we went up one by one to drink a bit of sake. Then it all degenerated into general chatting and the smoking of cigarettes. After a while we tore ourselves away to pay our respects at the buddhist temples too. This involved a brief prayer, exchanging "Akemashita omedetou gozaimasu" with the priest and (in the case of my father in law) dropping a special envelope with money in it in the "collection plate". Then as we left the temple we hit the bell outside with great force. One thing that amused me about one of the two temples we went to was the way they had their laundry hanging on the side. One other thing that I don't understand is why a village of a few hundred not terribly devout people can support two buddhist shrines from subtly different sects. It reminded me somewhat of the villages in Wales that have (or had) about 5 methodist chapels in them and where the Primitve Methodists disagree with the Wesleyans who disagree with the .... Anyway that was it for the night and so to bed.
This morning we woke up late. After we had wished the house gods a happy new year we to the kitchen for brunch which involved sake with flakes of gold in it and a table laden with food. Some of the food was the same as last night - you can see the roll mop dish (chopsticks in it), the konyaku (other large white dish) and the shredded wossname (smaller purple rimmed dish) - click on the photo to see an enlarged version
Each person gets his (or her) own crystalized persimmon and black beans and a bowl of rice cakes (mochi) in soup. This soup is somethign that each family does slightly differently. Once the sake had been drunk we moved on to umeboshi tea (green tea with lots of sugar and a pickled plum in the cup). Many of the food is chosen for bad puns to do with the words used to wish happy new year. I can't really explain them.
Now we are recovering from the food overload. We hoped to go out and enjoy the snow but unfortunately its still snowing which rather cuts down the enjoyment so I'm forced to stay inside and blog....