Akeome from Japan!

Gotokuji Shrine in Tokyo…..with many many many Maneki Nekos!

Happy new year!

明けましておめでとうございます(Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu).

I am constantly somewhat confused by the many ways to say things in Japanese. Happy new year is Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu formally. Akeome informally. But if you want to wish someone happy new year before the new year it is yoiotoshiwo, which translates somewhat to “have a good year” or “see you next year.” You would say that to friends or family before December 31st. Not to mention that “new year”is shinen or could be shougatsu (especially the first three days). There is also nenshi, which means beginning of the new year. 

New Years is one of the biggest holidays in Japanese (that might explain the amount of words for it) and they celebrate it pretty differently. The days are often spent cleaning and with family, instead of going out and partying like Americans. Japanese people spend a lot of time cleaning before the January first and on the first few days of the new year, hatsumode, they go to the shrines and temples for the first prayer of the year. Shrines are filled with people getting their omikuji (fortune) and ringing in the new year. If your fortune is good, you keep it and if it is bad, there is a rack at the temple where you can tie it up to leave it there.

Big lantern that greets you at Senso Ji

Overall I like Japanese New Years better! It makes more sense to clean out your place and pray for a good year than drinking, partying and waking up foggy for the next year.

Though 2024 in Japan had a strange and somewhat foreboding start to the new year. An earthquake hit Ishikawa on the west side. As most of you know, Japan is well known for earthquakes. At my orientation in Tokyo we were repeatedly warned about natural hazards and how to stay safe during earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and so on. Life in the ring of fire can be quite unpredictable. I am very grateful that I didn’t even feel the quake and life continued around me smoothly. It definitely reminded me to stay alert and aware.

This New Years I spent it in Tokyo, which was a blast. Tokyo was packed for New Years, foreigners and Japanese people alike. I got my fortune at one of Tokyo’s most famous shrines, Senso Ji (it was really bad so I left it there). I checked out the otaku and anime scene in Akihaibara, I got coffee in Shimokitazawa, a neighborhood that I got a recommendation for based on similar vibe to the Pacific Northwest, I checked out the shopping in Harajuku (the popular fashion area of Tokyo which I’ve known about since reading the Japanese fashion magazine Fruits as a kid) and skated at the Tokyo dome! One of the only rinks in Japan and somewhere that’s been on my list before moving to Japan. I stuffed my skates into my carry on onto the Shinkansen (bullet train) and dragged them around with me (it was absolutely worth it for the skating).

Fruits Mag-there was a book version published in the US, which I was read often as a kid

Though I went to a couple shrines for hatsumode, I still inadvertently ended up doing the more American style of NYE of staying out and dancing. My friend and I found a place to dance with house music. I really love house music and house dance, a style of dance that formed out of underground clubs in New York and Chicago in the 80’s and 90’s. At the house club, I found a group of Korean girls from Seoul to dance with and had fun bringing the energy up.

I also stayed with my friend in the Chiba area (a town called Yotsukaido, an hour and a half outside of Tokyo) and stumbled across a super cheap chaotic vintage store (I bought a small kewpie doll for two dollars). We went to a cat cafe and super locals arcade spot in Chiba….there were mostly men, mostly alone, playing arcade games with superhuman skill. 

Not the Kewpie I ended up buying……but look at this!!

After over a week in Tokyo, leaving exhausted, with a full heart and a light wallet, I finally made it back to Osaka. It feels good to be home. Osaka is more brash, more outgoing, more strange than Tokyo, which is my vibe.

I went to yet another shrine in Osaka for a matsuri (festival) that was packed. People were at the money shrine to pray for fortune and prosperity for their businesses. There wasn’t much rhyme or reason to the crowds, people were more pushy and forward. Good old Osaka. There were also wayyyyyy less foreigners and the ones I did see, I assumed they actually lived in the area. When a Japanese guy tried to talk to us his friend snickered at him for talking to the “gaijin.” 

It feels good to be back!

Sayonara!

PS: I made a little video about food in Japan. I know some of you find that interesting! Things get normal so quickly that I often forget that even eating here can also be quite a different experience from the US. For instance, I did try raw chicken the other day (no absolutely not, but I gave it a go).