The New Year holiday is the biggest holiday for the Japanese. To celebrate New Year and New Year’s Eve in the traditional Japanese way, there’s something you can do.
Table of Contents
1. Decorate Gate With Traditional Japan Auspicious Craft
On the porch or the entrance door, it is placed shimekazari, shimenawa, and kagami mochi.
Shimekazari consists of shimenawa which is a small rope made from rice straws, with carefully crafted zigzag-shaped paper strips called shire, pine, and bitter orange as a symbol of posterity, combined with various other good luck charms and adornments.
Kagami mochi is usually made up of two layers of round rice cake topped with a mandarin. Sometimes many other additions to the kagami mochi, each with its meaning.
2. Eat Toshikoshi Soba
Eat Toshikoshi Soba (year-crossing soba) which is a traditional Japan New Year’s Eve dish. There are different ways to cook Toshikoshi Soba in different regions of Japan Normally Toshikoshi Soba is buckwheat noodles with assorted tempura.
Nishin Soba is a bowl of buckwheat noodles served with dried herring simmered in soy sauce, mirin sweet cooking rice wine, and sugar. People in Hokkaido eat Nishin Soba for New Year’s Eve.
Many local soba shops sell labeled Toshikoshi soba. If you visit Japan during the New Year holiday, you can try it!
3. Visit A Shrine Or Temple
After midnight Japanese went to the shrine and made a wish for the first time of the new year. It’s called Hatsumode. It’s an important custom in Japan. People think it can bring some luck or energy to the upcoming year. You also can do Hatsumode in the daytime.
Most shrines sell talismans, which people can purchase on a Hatsumode visit.
4. Eat Osechi
The traditional Japanese New Year food called Osechi, which consists of various dishes with auspicious significance, is eaten on New Year’s Day. A complete set of Osechi can take days to prepare. Nowadays many have decided to outsource the work to department stores or even convenience stores, where you can reserve your boxes in advance.
5. Eat Ozouni
Ozouni is a traditional Japanese soup served with mochi rice cakes inside. It is eaten at New Year’s to wish for a happy and prosperous upcoming year. It is eaten for breakfast on the first three days of the new year.
Ozouni in Hokkaido is a bit different than other regions in Japan. In Hokkaido, the soup is made of seafood. Salmon, salmon roe, whale meat…etc are commonly added to the soup.
6. Get Lucky Bags
Lucky bags, called fukubukuro (fuku means luck and bukuro means bag) are sealed bags sold for a set price at shops across the country around New Year. Some will pre-sell from September. You can check the sale time on your favorite brand’s official website. Also, some of the lucky bags are limited in the amount of sale, which means many people queue up for the lucky bags, sometimes conflicts could occur, many brands have now opted to sell their lucky bags online instead.
