New Years in Nihon!

Hope you all are enjoying your week of fun and festivities with family and friends! We've managed to have a pretty fun and relaxing week here in Japan. We've had several dinner parties with friends and Josh has been able to work some shorter days which has given us time to go on adventures and relax some too.

We're on our way to Tokyo for an overnight venture tonight. Hopefully they will still have Christmas lights up around the city...and maybe we'll catch a bit of the pre-New Year's Eve hub-bub as well! New Year's is the biggest celebration of the year in Japan. Many of their customs and traditions are linked to the Buddhist religion -

http://mothra.rerf.or.jp/ENG/Hiroshima/Festivals/27.html

From what I've learned from my Japanese students, this link seems to provide a good overview of the traditions that will occur in homes all over Japan throughout the next week or so - it's pretty fascinating.

One of my students has invited us over for New Year's food (Shogatsu dishes), so I hope that we can join her family to enjoy some of the Japanese tastes of the season. She doesn't cook anytime during the year - except for New Year's, so it is a VERY big deal! They will celebrate from January 1st - 3rd and most businesses and shops will be closed during that time.

Also, a very popular tradition in Japan is to send New Year's cards (Nengajo). It's similar to sending Christmas cards, but they are almost always post cards and usually themed around the lunar symbol of the year - this year is the "Year of the Wild Boar" - most people include a short personal message and a wish for good luck in the new year. The craziest thing is that if a person gets their cards to the Japanese post office by December 24th - they are GUARANTEED to be delivered on the morning of January 1st! Everyone recieves a large stack of cards on that day - it's the only mail delivered!

Happy New Year to all of you! Love, Rebecca and Josh