001 New Year

The two of the typical decorations for New Year are “Shimenawa" and “Kadomatsu”.  Shimenawa is made of rice straw and Kadomatsu is a kind of ornament made with bamboo and pine branch.

We usually drink “Otoso”, a kind of sake, to celebrate New Year on January 1st, and have “Zohni” and “Osechi”.  Zohni is vegetable soup containing rice cakes. There are a lot of different kinds of recipes in different districts in Japan. Osechi is also made from many different ingredients and served in different styles, but mostly served cold. I think the idea of these food is to save time for cooking during New Year’s holiday season. And in another sense they are Japanese ultimate fast food!

And an interesting custom is “Lion Dance”. The lion’s head is made of wood, and its body is made of cloth. Two people go inside the lion’s body, and handle the head and the body while dancing. It is said that by being bit the head by a lion, a child will be clever. However it’s a bit scary experience for a child to face a widely opened lion’s mouth, so parents must face crying babies afterwards in most cases.

(shimenawa) (kadomatsu)


(otoso)



(lion dance)

(boy in a suit)


(girls wearing "furisode")

Coming of Age Day is celebrated on the second Monday of January. The ceremony is held in each city or town. Many girls wear “Furisode”, the most gorgeous kimono, and many boys wear suit to attend the ceremony.


(boys wearing kimono)