Life in Japan, Part I

We always love to visit Japan at New Year’s time. In Japan, New Year’s is like Christmas and Thanksgiving rolled into one: it’s the biggest holiday of the year and the time when the whole family gets together.

For New Year’s this year we travelled to Beppu, the small city on Kyushu, Japan’s southern island, to visit Kyo’s grandmother. When we arrived in Beppu at around 6:30 am in the morning, the first thing we did is drive to the top of a mountain to watch the sun rise. In Japan, it’s considered good luck to see the first rays of the sun on the new year. As you can see from Kyo’s picture, we should have good luck this year!

After watching the sun rise over the clouds, we drove to Kyo’s grandmother’s house. She was already busy in the kitchen, preparing the morning meal, called “O-sechi.” O-sechi is the name for the special foods eaten in Japan on New Year’s. For the most part, they are cold foods prepared in advance, because people are supposed to focus on being with friends and family and not have to worry about spending all day cooking.

Thankfully Kyo’s grandmother served hot soup along with the o-sechi — it was a freezing cold day, so it was nice to hold a warm bowl of soup in your hands. Here she is, chopping scallions to add to the soup.

And here’s the grilled mochi (rice cakes) that she added to the soup, as well.

[- Janna]