Hinamatsuri

March 3 is Hinamatsuri Day in Japan.  It is also called “girl’s day”, and families with girl(s) celebrate this day with a display of ornamental dolls (Hina-ningyo).

It is one of Japanese traditional event, and my house also used to display a set of Hina-ningyo on the day of Hinamatsuri.  Since this display set is pretty huge, it takes few hours to set up the stairs and dolls on the right position.  (which is like setting up a Christmas tree)  And, on the day of Hinamatsuri we turn on the light called bon-bori and run the music of Hinamatsuri song.  

Nowadays people don’t set up the traditional display (which is kinda shame), but substitute with something different…

Chinese New Year 2010

As you may know, this Chinese New Year is the same date as Valentine’s Day.  We, Japanese, don’t celebrate Chinese New Year (as our New Year Day is the 1st of January), but I attended the dinner with in-laws last night at a Chinese restaurant in East Perth, called Han Palace.  The outside and interior of this restaurant is just about what I imagine of “China”  

We had a course meal, which contains 13 dishes.

Yu Sang - Prosperity Raw Fish Salad

Shark Fin and Crab Meat Soup

Ginger and Shallot Western Rock Lobster with Yee Meen

etc etc.

The food was …. to me, not really special.  Maybe it’s because those food are special New Year’s food, I don’t know.  Well, I did enjoyed the atmosphere though.  There was a big screen of tv showing a New Year’s event show, and we started the course meal by mixing up the Yu Sang together while yelling “Happy New Year”.

While we were about halfway through the course meal, it started … - dragon dance!  

Two dragon started to look for ang pows (red envelop with money) and all the customers in the restaurants were feeding ang pow to those dancing dragon.

Dragon must get the ang pows : a customer stood on a chair and held an ang pows in high position, and dragon also has to stand up and get the ang pows.

It was a fun night.  I didn’t eat much, but the service was great.

Setsubun 節分

Today 03/Feb is Setsubun in Japan.  Setsubun literally means “seasonal division”, and we do bean-throwing ceremony.  Yes, people in Japan throw beans on this day, since long long time ago (even before samurai era).

Temples, schools, city halls, families etc held this bean-throwing ceremony.  We use roasted soybeans, and these beans are edible. (yummy!)

If you do this ceremony at home, usually father wears an oni (demon or ogre) mask and other family members throw the beans towards the “oni” while chanting “Oni wa soto!  Fuku wa uchi!” which roughly translate to ”Demons out! Luck in!”

The purpose of this ceremony is to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come.  When I was little, however, I just enjoyed throwing beans away everywhere around the house, toilets, school and temples, screaming ”Oni wa soto!  Fuku wa uchi!” :)

Then, as part of bringing luck in, it is customary to eat these beans, one for each year of one’s life for bringing good luck for the year to come.  If you are age 10, you will need to eat 10 beans.

Of course, the house gets very messy after this ceremony and needs to be cleaned up.  But cleaning is also fun part, try to find tiny beans around the house  :)  If you have a pet it maybe easier.

And, on Setsubun, we eat a sushi roll called “Eho Maki”.  ”Eho Maki” roughly means ”lucky direction roll” and it contains 7 lucky ingredients including eel, dashi-maki (omelet) etc.  There are few rules to eat this sushi roll!

It has to be eaten without pause or chatter, while facing the auspicious direction of the year (the yearly lucky compass direction, determined by the zodiac symbol of that year)

Remember not to say “delicious” while eating. You have to eat all without speaking!  Oh, and one more thing.  You can’t slice the sushi roll.  You have to move the whole long piece into your mouth and eat just like that.  That’s why “Eho Maki” in convenience stores are all not cut.  Usually “Eho Maki” is thick roll, so you have to open your mouth very wide

Fireworks

I’m sure many people went down to City area to watch the fireworks last night.  I thought there were fireworks on the New Years Day too in Perth, but apparently only on Australian Day.  

I didn’t go to watch fireworks but I could see and hear a bit of it from my sister’s house in Mt Lawley.  I’ve been to South Perth to see the fireworks once, I think it was 5 years ago :p  I remember there’re so many people (drunk) and many police officers…  

Watching the fireworks last night recalled a memory of summer in Japan.  I haven’t been able to watch fireworks in Japan for 7 years now.  I’m sure every prefecture has its own fireworks events every summer, and some of them are pretty big, but I always go to the one near my house.  

Shiga has few cities which do fireworks, and the one in Otsu city (capital city in Shiga) is apparently the biggest one among those cities.  I don’t go to Otsu, but go to Hikone city which is the closest to my house  

from http://www.biwako-visitors.jp/hanabi/

Because there is Biwa Lake in Shiga, the biggest lake in Japan, they ignite the fireworks on the boat floating on the lake.  Even though it’s just Hikone city’s fireworks, it’s really beautiful and usually it keeps going for 2~3 hours.  In Perth the fireworks is just for half an hour?  

There are many stalls selling food at the fireworks area.  Takoyaki, Kakigori (shaved ice with syrup), yaki-ika (grilled squid) etc etc.  People wear yukata (Japan’s summer wear, casual kimono) and watch the fireworks while enjoying those food

Aaaaaaaa writing this really makes me want to watch the fireworks in Hikone!  I wish I could go back to Japan during summer around August, but I don’t think I can this year  Hopefully next year…

What Japanese People Do in December

Like other countries, December is the busiest month in a year in Japan.  New Year’s Day is the biggest event, followed by New Year’s Eve and Christmas.  On December, school kids start to get excited for the winter holiday, couples get excited for the romantic Christmas dates, and families get excited for a gathering with all the relatives and family.   

We have several things to get done before New Year’s Day in Japan.  One is cleaning!  We clean our houses, offices, gardens, and even public toilets.  This cleaning is called “Nenmatsu- Oh-souji” (the end of the year cleaning).  When I was a kid all my family get busy… wipe tatami mats, clean light bulbs, change paper on shoji (window made with Japanese paper and wood) , wash doggy’s house etc.  The idea of this ”Nenmatsu- Oh-souji” is that we clean up all the mess we made in the year and welcome a New Year with clean and new atmosphere -  a new life.

Another one is … parties!  We do “bounen-kai” , “shinnen-kai” and sometimes Christmas party with colleagues, friends, and family.  ”Bounen-kai” is a party (mostly drinking at Izakaya) before New Year’s Day, and it’s for “to forget about this year”.  Whatever you did, any mistakes and regrets in the year,  you have to forget after attending this party.  On the other hand, “Shinnen-kai” is a party after New Year’s Day.  This is just a party to welcome New Year.  Sometimes you get to attend those parties almost everyday in December, for example, with friends from high school, with friends from college, with friends from office, with office members, with kid’s play group members etc.  Very busy!  But fun

My mum emailed me saying that her company was having ”Bounen-kai” lastnight, and everyone was working super fast and finished 2 hours early!  So funny…  They are so ready to drink some beer and sho-chu!

I’m having a small gathering party (kind of ”Bounen-kai”) with my friends this Saturday.  This’s organised by my friend and we are gonna just relax and do nothing but eat & drink!  Can’t wait!