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| Kadomatsu |
Happy New Year! New Year's is the biggest holiday celebrated here in Japan. It is an extremely important time of year; a time of clean starts, new blessings, and sacred cleansings. People deep clean their homes during this time (instead of in the spring like we are used to) so they can start the year with a fresh, orderly home. Many different decorations are hung and displayed inside the house as well as outside. The temples and shrines are hopping, and on New Year's Eve everyone flocks to their neighborhood shrine at midnight. At the shrines, everyone waits their turn to pray and ring the bell, as well as mingle while they drink sake and amazake. It's almost like a block party. Everyone has a great time celebrating the new year. The temples are busy, too, with much of the same happenings. However, at the temples, starting at the stroke of midnight, their bells are struck 108 times. The number signifies the number of worldly sins that Buddhists believe exist, and tolling the bells 108 times rids the new year of each one.
We got some traditional New Year decor this year, and it is customary to leave them up until January 7th. On that day, all New Year's decor must come down. First off, we got an outdoor decoration called a shimekazari. It is to be hung on a gate or front door for good luck and keeping evil spirits away. We also got a mini kadomatsu that we keep in our dining room. Usually they are quite large (3-4ft tall) and are kept outside, but I couldn't pass up this cute mini one! The kadomatsu house good and ancestral spirits during the holiday, and also bring longevity and prosperity. Normally in the middle of January, the kadomatsu is burned to release the spirits. The third decoration we got is the kagami mochi. This is a very important item, and the making of mochi is a cornerstone of New Year's events. Two mounds of mochi, stacked on top of each other, are displayed on alters in homes and shrines across Japan. They symbolize the coming of a new year, and the passing of the old one. Often, a daidai (Japanese orange) and other fruit are placed on top of the mochi, as well as evergreen sprigs and kelp, which represent strength and good luck. The kagami mochi is kept on a special cloth which is to ward off house fires in the new year.
This New Year we hung out at our shrine at midnight, tried amazake for the first time, and delighted in listening to the temple bells. It was so cool to see everyone walking from all around to the nearest shrine, and joining them in the late night pilgrimage.
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| Daruma doll and kadomatsu |
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| Shimekazari |
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| Kagami mochi with a maneki neko instead of daidai |
It's Japanese tradition to have KFC on Christmas Eve. So, since we are here, we of course have to do it too! It's so popular that we had to preorder days ahead of time, and even then the meal set we wanted was already sold out. But we sat down to our chicken dinner tonight and opened our gifts afterward. Merry Christmas from Japan!
We went to Tokyo and got the Blooming Hot Chocolate and the Frozen S'more! They were both really good. If you're ever in Tokyo, go to Dominique Ansel Bakery and get you some! The S'more is a giant homemade marshmallow with vanilla ice cream in the center, and they toast the outside over a flame. The blooming marshmallow flower in the drink tasted like orange. Pretty nummy!
We met Santa Paws and his Holiday Huskies!!!! We were walking in Tokyo today and a big pack of huskies were walking down the street dressed in Christmas outfits and spreading cheer! One of them was a real life Santa Paws and had a pack of goodies on his back! We were allowed to reach in and get some snacks! It was sooooo cool and cute and the pups were having a great time! Tell your pets they better be good for goodness sake - Santa Paws is REAL!!! Merry Christmas! 
