A Happy New Year!!: Part I
You would wish you were cerebrating the new year in Japan,if you read this entry. Especially kids may envy Japanese kids
why?? Because lots of food,and day of getting "O to shi da ma". what is "O TO SHI DA MA"??
It is a little envelope with money in it. Little kids up to high school kids get O TO SHI DA MA. Usually start with 1 year grade gets $5 coin and then,as you get older,you get more money from relatives such as aunt,grandparents and so on.Then, some kids put the money into their checking account at bank after spending some money on toys or something else that they wished for. Usually,Jan 1 through 3rd are really big sale time over in Japan,and toy stores get so crowded.
BUT main event on the New Years Day is to go visit the shrine/temples.Those places get so crowded as well. After that,maybe shopping around and eat traditional dishes "O SE CHI".O SE CHI is the word for traditional dishes pointing towards 14 kinds of side dishes. Sweet rolled egg,sweet black beans,seaweed,shrimp,fish sticks etc etc list goes on.Each individual dish has its own meaning why it is prepared for the new year. For example,shrimp dish. Shrimp has loong whiskers,and shrimp is curled up.So,people prepare the shrimp dish wishing to live long until they gets their back curled up. And herring roes is prepared wishing to have kids.Teriyaki flavored tiny fish dish is prepared to wish for good harvest in the new year. Sweet chestnut dish is prepared wishiing for welthy new year because chestnut is color of gold.
You can look the O SE CHI dish picture here.
Other than O SE CHI dish,we eat ZO U NI. It is like a soy based soup with green and MO CHI (Rice cake) in it. MO CHI is made from rice. Rice is special rice for MO CHI not thesame kind of Su Shi rice. You can skillet it and dip into soy+sugar dipping sauce or you can cook them in the soup.When MO CHI is cooked,it gets pufred up,and it gets chewy a little and sticky,and it really good. Unfortunately,when you buy at Asian market,the MO CHI bag is redicurously expensive. My grandpa used to make MO CHI from scratch and I used to help the making. Freshly made MO CHI is really good.
Kids on New year wear kimono. some adults wear kimono as well. New year in Japan is just like Thanksgiving day in US and very very busy day.
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