Oshogatsu

An
American in Asia:

His Quest for Cosmic Truth

(or at least a Decent Espresso)

Published in J-Select Magazine

I’ll never forget my first Christmas in Japan. And not just because I was punched in the face. It was a freezing night in Mie Prefecture and my Japanese friends, members of a Judo club and a punk rock band, took me to a hillside shrine where we sat at a picnic table and guzzled beer by candle light. Things quickly degenerated into a drinking game involving tongue-twisters. If you lost, you had to down a beer and hold your chin out for one of the Judo guys to take a poke at. The drunker I got the less I felt the punch so it was kind of fun. Anyway my Japanese pronunciation improved. It was a Christmas to remember, but we weren’t burning any Yule logs.

Let’s face it. You can look for Christmas in Japan but all you are going to find is a miniaturized plastic version of it that would embarrass Charlie Brown. Every year I try to count all the dancing Santas I see but I always lose track at around 300. And what exactly is a Christmas cake? Who convinced everyone that Christmas is a time for cake? It’s good for the cake industry, I guess. And just try driving around with a tree tied to your car and see how far you get.

Yet while Christmas may be confined to those countries where a certain martyr is popular, it seems that every culture celebrates the beginning of Winter in some fashion. While Christmas here may be an excuse to shack up in a hotel, New Years is the day you sit around the house with the family, doing traditional stuff like watching sports on TV, eating traditional food like mushed up rice floating in a bowl of soup and talking to crazy Aunt Hanako who flew in for the week. If you’re in Japan, why not transfer all those cozy holiday feelings to a Japanese New Year celebration?

First, you have to write New Years cards to everyone you even remotely know. If they know your name, they’re expecting a card. Most Japanese folks will tell you this is a big hassle, but hassle is the “H” in “holiday”. Putting out the effort is what makes it special. Think of it as a substitute for the danger and agony of Christmas shopping.

If you miss chopping down coniferous vegetation and hanging electric lights on it, try Kadomatsu, a branch of pine stuck in a bamboo vase and placed in front of your house or apartment to bring happiness.

Food is a central theme here. It’s absolutely vital to your future that you eat soba at New Years. It’s called toshikoshi soba, the first soba of the year and if you eat the kind with long noodles, you are insured to have a long life.

Another dish appropriate to the season is Ozoni. This is soup with a hot lump of pulverized rice lurking in the bottom called Omochi. Be careful and don’t breathe this substance in! People are rushed to the hospital every New Years with wads of glutinous rice lodged in their bronchial tubes. You can easily make Ozoni at home. Mix instant dashi with hot water, add a little soy sauce, daikon radish, taro, greens, deep-fried tofu, a meat such as chicken and boil it till done. If you’re in Osaka, add miso paste. Drop in the mochi and you’re ready to eat.

Omochi is bought ready-made at the store these days, but if you are lucky enough to own a huge wooden hammer and a pestle the size of a small trash can, you can make it yourself. You’ll need some rice, specially grown for omochi, a bit of upper body strength, a little towel to tie around your head for no reason and a friend who really trusts you. His job is to turn the ball of pulverized rice dough every time you hit it with the big hammer. Try it! It’s fun! Don’t kill your friend. And don’t make it on the 29th because it’s bad luck (9 in Japanese implies hardship). You can prepare omochi it in many ways. Boil it, bake it, fill it with sweet adzuki bean paste, put soy sauce on it, wrap it in nori, pop it in your mouth and chew chew chew.

New Years food in general is called Osechi. There are many kinds and most of them are based on some sort of pun. Kazunoko (herring roe) is good for your descendants. “Kazu” means number and “Ko” is child. Tazukuri (sardines) are good for the harvest. “Ta” is field and “tsukuru” means to make. Konbumaki (seaweed rolls made with konbu and rice) bring happiness. “Yorokobu” means to enjoy. Kuromame (black soy beans) are good for health. “Mame” is strength and diligence.

New Year’s is a good day for Mom, because Osechi is usually made the day before and stored in stacked boxes. In fact many people just buy it all at the store. Mom can relax, and everyone gets Osechi in their lunch box for the rest of the week.

After the morning meal it’s time to fall asleep on the tatami. But don’t do this. It’s bad for your digestion. Instead get up and, against all instinct to stay under the cozy warm kotatsu, put on a coat and march through the snow to the temple or shrine nearest you. If you’re so inclined, you can visit at midnight of the New Year. They will be ringing the temple bell 108 times, once for each of the worldly passions. Sometimes they even let visitors ring it. The first visit of the year is called hatsumoude.
The nearby temple is the one that protects you from harm, but there are many worth making a trip to visit. In the Kanto area the most popular is Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi park. Just take the Yamanote line to Harajuku and follow everybody else. You can’t miss it. Toshogu Shrine in Ueno park is another big draw and the park is more conducive to containing a crowd. Sensouji in Asakusa is another very popular spot.

When you get to your shrine of choice, join the inevitable throng and mill slowly in the direction of the gates. On your way, buy some dango, sweet omochi rolled into three balls and skewered on a stick. There are various flavors, all delicious. And the texture is something to write home about. If you have anything important to say, do it before you put one in your mouth. Brace yourself against the cold with Amazake: sweet sake with fermented rice floating in it. It’s good if you have the flu, I’m told.

When you finally enter the shrine, follow everyone to the front of the main building. It’s fun to watch, but you shouldn’t be shy about participating. The usual thing to do is get close enough to toss a coin into the slatted box in front. The recommended denomination is the five yen coin with the nifty hole in the center. If you’re at a shrine, clap a couple times to gain the attention of the supreme forces. At this point he or she will hopefully be listening and you can relate your lofty dreams for the coming year. You don’t have to clap at a temple. Buddha’s got those big ears.

After you have tossed your coins, you have more opportunities to throw your money around. You might be able to purchase a kumade, or bear’s paw. This is a decorative item meant to symbolically rake in the money - or salmon, whichever you prefer - in the coming year. Obviously, the bigger the kumade, the more money you rake in. And pay for it, incidentally. Every shrine is different and each has it’s own special souvenirs. If you bought any of these things last year, bring them back to the temple this year and have them burned to complete the cycle.

One thing you will find at every shrine is omikuji. These are the fun little fortunes you can see tied to trees all around the shrine. There will be a wooden box with a hole in one end. Grab the box and shake it until one of many long sticks comes out the hole. Read the number on the stick and find the corresponding envelope at the stand. This will cost you around ¥100 or so. Open the envelope and sit down for an hour with your kanji dictionary to learn your fortune for the year. If the fortune is a good one, go ahead and keep it. If it’s not so good (they’re rarely downright bad), tie it to a tree in front of the temple to get rid of the bad luck.

By this time you’ll be tired, wracked with leg pain and out of film. So take a break at one of the stands that has benches. Eat some Okonomiyaki, a kind of tasty octopus pancake. Try to find one that’s authentic Hiroshima style, with soba noodles in it. If you still have the energy later, New Years games include flying kites, spinning tops and playing traditional Japanese badminton.

Now you’ve done everything and taken pictures to show Mom, you only have one task ahead of you and here’s where the holidays coincide. No matter what culture you hail from, the late afternoon of the Winter Solstice Holiday means one of two things: gathering around a warm TV and watching sports, or being bored by all the people who are just sitting around watching sports. In Japan the sport is usually the Hakone Marathon, in which a guy runs 20km, gives a ribbon to another guy and then he runs 20km ad infinitum. This is a good time to try Omiki, sake with Chinese herbs. You can be healthy and drunk. It may be difficult to find your usual holiday trappings in Japan. Maybe there’s a dearth of meaning in the Ginza lights and dancing Santas. But holiday cheer is here to be found. So gather ‘round a warm kotatsu, put out the kadomatsu and dig into the New Year’s feast. It’s not Christmas, but hey, it’s better than a punch in the face.

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Jeffrey Studebaker has been (in no particular order) a SE Asian correspondent for a Singaporean travel magazine, a teacher, consultant and translator in Japan, a guitarist with the band, Swoon 23 in every city of the US of A, a coffee roaster in Seattle, a bike messenger in Portland, a marine fire system repairman in Seattle, an osteoporosis clinic researcher in Providence, a mental ward counsellor on the night shift in Portland, a brief success in New York, and he has now returned to the US after nearly a decade in Asia to pursue a publishing career.