|
 |
 |
|
| |
Broadcasting to an audience of three (and a goldfish)...
Comment, ramblings and musings... life through the eyes of a Japanologist...
 |
Wednesday, January 1, 2003 |
 Web sites worthy of mention...
Pepys' Diary
A 'weblog' project to put a day's entry from Pepys' Diary on to the internet every day, starting from today. The real-time nature of the entries (in other words, the entry published on January 1st is that for January 1st) makes things interesting, as does the fact that readers can post comments and annotations, making the whole project far much more than just a republishing of a work dating from 1660.
I look forward to the next ten years' reading...!
|
|
 Japan A-Z
O-sechi ryori (Food for the New Year)
The term o-sechi originally referred to the banquets given by the Imperial court in the Heian period (794-1192) to celebrate the changes of season. Today, however, the word refers to an assortment of delicacies served over the New Year period. O-sechi is prepared in advance (because very few shops are open during the first three days of the New Year), and is mostly stored and served in multi-tiered lacquered boxes known as ju-bako. The food served as o-sechi varies from region to region, but among the most common delicacies include kuromame (stewed black soybeans), kazunoko (herring roe), or gomame (dried sardines). Kuromame are eaten so that you will be able to work hard during the coming year (a pun; 'mamemameshii', meaning 'hard working', sounds like 'mame', the word for 'bean'). Kazunoko is eaten so that you will have many descendants ('kazu no ko' can also mean 'many children'), while gomame is eaten for a good harvest ('go' can mean five, referring to the five grains).
|
|
Web sites worthy of mention...
Ticketstubs
This is a site which proclaims to tell 'tales of the ephemeral based on the flotsam of life'. As the front page comments,
Ticket stubs are everywhere, one of the many receipts in our daily lives - but we all save some from time to time. The Ticketstub project is a place where you can upload scanned images of your saved stubs, and tell a story about that night, that concert, that movie, what happened on that date; basically, ask youself why you saved the stub as a reminder. I like this sort of site, the one where you can just delve in, picking entries at random, and spend a fascinating half-hour or so of unproductivity. And moreover, it's true- I have any number of ticketstubs (well, train tickets mostly), saved more through chance than by design, but all of them bring back memories.
|
|
When I got back from Todaka-san's house, I found in my letterbox... nengajo! A reward for all the toil and stress of sending them out! Today there were *** cards in my box, and there'll be more in the next few days. I like this custom- rather than Christmas cards, it seems more meaningful, more personal even, to send greetings to people at the start of a year, and to express the hope that your relationship will be fruitful and prosperous in the coming twelve months. I like the idea of looking forward to, and through, the year, in the anticipation that things will be good.
|
|
 Another entry from the sake book. Alcohol and Health: F
Fluster: Gulping liquor in a fluster is dangerous.
|
|
As ever, the evening at Todaka-san's house was pleasant. Todaka-san's wife is an excellent cook, so even though we had o-sechi ryori- the special food eaten over New Year- she'd cooked (and continued to cook throughout the evening) other food as well. This time, too, Todaka-san's son was back with his wife and daughter, so we were able to drink together. It was the first time we'd met, but we got on very well. With the food, the drink, and the company (we always get into interesting conversations when I go to the Todakas' house, normally about the island's schools and schoolchildren), it was an excellent few hours. Being in Japan I miss family life, and so I appreciate being invited to Todaka-san's house very much indeed.
|
|
After the last sunset of 2002, the first sunrise of 2003.
This photo was taken from the sanbashi at Koyo Port, looking out towards Kure, while waiting for the ferry.
|
|
Having got to bed at about 2.15, I was up again at 6.15, to go to Miyajima with a friend from Takehara, for hatsumode. Hatsumode, referring to a person's first visit to a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple in the new year, is, I would say, the most common custom still observed during New Year. It is estimated that every year from January 1st to January 3rd, a total of over eighty million people (around two thirds of the whole population of Japan!) do hatsumode.
Strictly speaking, I'd already done hatsumode at the temple and shrine in Etajima, but I still wanted to go to Miyajima. Not only is it one of the three great sights of Japan, but it's one of the country's major shrines, and, having visited Meiji Jingu on January 2nd last year, I wanted to see what hatsumode would be like in Itsukushima Jinja.
I caught the 8.20 ferry to Kure (amusing, because of about 20 people on the ferry, 15 were Philippinos), and met Mori-san on the train, which was uncharacteristically empty. We changed at Hiroshima, on to a train which was standing-room only; obviously we weren't the only ones heading to Miyajima, judging by the amount of hamaya. It was raining quite heavily while we were on the train, but by the time we got to the station for the ferry to Miyajima, around half-past ten, it had stopped, although it still wasn't particularly bright. The ferry to Miyajima was completely packed; it was so full that we stood in the space normally used for cars. This enabled me to get a good few video shots of the torii as we approached, though.
Once on the island, the crowds thinned out a bit, and we were able to stroll fairly pleasantly. We bought amazake, and then headed round the headland, viewing the torii from the land side this time, and on to the shrine. Itsukushima Jinja is famous because it's built on stilts in a cove, so the water flows under it like a seaside pier at high tide. Its situation, too- the vermillion of the shrine against the rich green of the pines- is sublime. Anyway, we bought entrance tickets (it's not just English cathedrals where admission is charged) and followed the flow of people round the shrine. It's not one building, rather a long corridor with buildings and rooms off of this corridor. The weather by now was beautiful, and I got some good video, with shots of the torii floating in the sea framed by the shrine buildings. All fairly standard shots, but good nevertheless.
Towards the exit from the shrine, there were the standard stalls selling hamaya and amulets, and I considered buying one... until I came within ten feet of the scrum around the stalls, and realised that I ran a serious risk of losing an eye, or a limb, if I got any closer. Likewise, we passed by the window where o-miki- blessed cups of sake- were being distributed, and left the shrine. A crowd of deer were ready to molest anyone with food (or, in fact, anything edible), but we left the throng and climbed up a little stone stairway to a pagoda on a hill. The great thing about Miyajima is that you only need to go about ten feet from the main tourist trail, and there's nobody around, even on a day like today when half of the prefecture has converged on the island; for example, Mori-san had never been along the route I showed her. We wandered along woody paths to the temple complex halfway up Mount Misen, which is equally impressive as Itsukushima Jinja, and spent quite a bit of time admiring the temples, and enjoying the general hustle and bustle. I got plenty more footage here- I'm going to have to get a new hard drive for my Mac, or I won't be able to download all of it to edit! One of the temples was so full of smoke from the incense, etc., that it really hurt our eyes!
We followed the path back towards Momiji-dani (the valley famous for its red leaves in autumn), stopping on the way at a little place from where the Emperor is supposed to have gazed out over the torii. It's a little cafe, now, and they trade on this fame and the spectacular view by charging extortionate prices, but we had maccha and momiji-manju (a little sponge cake with azuki bean filling). We wandered down through the valley back to the shrine and the town, where we found that the crowds had increased (ten-fold or so!) over the course of the morning. We'd got into the shrine with only a minute or so's queueing, but now the queue stretched back for about 500 metres! We took a route past the five-storey pagoda and the 'Hall of 1000 tatami mats' to the main shopping street, where we'd planned to have lunch, and eventually found a restaurant where we wouldn't have to wait for an hour or so. After a rather rushed lunch of kaki donburi (oyster and eggs on rice)- very good!- we hurried for the 2.50 ferry, stopping only at the shop selling Miyajima sake. Because of it being New Year's Day, the final ferry to Etajima was around six o'clock, and in any case I'd been invited to Todaka-san's house for dinner, so we didn't have as much time as would have been ideal.
Back on the mainland after a cold and windy ferry ride (on the car deck again!), we found a train that was going all the way to Hiro, thus avoiding a change at Hiroshima, and jumped on it; we even got a seat! I got off at Kure, and Mori-san continued on to Hiro and Takehara. It was a fun day; it would have been good if we'd been able to take things a bit more leisurely (both in terms of time and in terms of not having to fight crowds- I dread to think what getting to Miyajima in the afternoon was like), but there will be chances in the future, I'm sure.
|
|
 What I did today
Today, I...
- Got up early- too early considering I didn't go to bed until after two;
- Saw the first sunrise of the year;
- Went to Miyajima with Mori-san;
- Was invited to Todaka-san's house for dinner;
- Got *** nengajo;
- Wrote the first Japan A-Z entry.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Breakfast Show
Weather...
FastCounter by bCentral
|
|
