Thursday, January 1, 2015

2015.1.1

Happy New Year 2015!

It was cloudy, snowy and cold.  It's very rare to have snow on the New Year's Day (ganjitsu: 元日) here.  Snow is yuki (雪) in Japanese.  At first it was kona yuki (粉雪), powder snow, and it became botan yuki (牡丹雪), large flakes, later but it did not pile. 

I cooked o zoni (お雑煮), rice cake soup this morning and ate o sechi ryori (お節料理) which I received yesterday.  They were rather gorgeous.  There were three boxes piled, and there were so many different dishes inside (See the attached picture with menu).   O zoni and  o sechi ryori are typical Japanese New Year dishes.


After that I went to the nearby shrine for the first visit of this year called hatsumode (初詣). 
 
Then I went to Yokohama to attend the Kimono Style Miya's New Year event.  About 15 people joined.  I met two of my friends there.  Some of them have stayed there overnight since yesterday.
We ate o zoni and o sechi ryoriO zoni there was Nagoya style, which is rather simple.  And I changed to the new kimono and we went to Iseyama kotai jingu (伊勢山皇大神宮) shrine for the first visit.  There were so many people visiting there, and it took a long time to arrive at the main building.  There were many food stalls along the street for both sides, and many people were eating something here and there. 

At the shrine they offered sacred sake called o miki (お神酒) and they gave us the drinking dish called sakazuki (盃).  We felt very lucky.  Most of them tried to draw the fortune telling called o mikuji (お御籤) for 200 yen, but I did not because I have made up mind not to draw it since I got the big fortune (daikichi: 大吉) at the Sengen jinja (浅間神社) shrine at the top of the Mt. Fuji in the summer of 1984.  The o mikuji of Iseyama kotai jingu looked very cute and there was a charm inside.  So those who drew also felt lucky.

After that we went back to the kimono shop again and ate some foods and went out to the restaurant to have sweets.  There they also offered o miki.  There were 11 of us, and two of them ordered pancakes.  And it took about 40 minutes to be served.  I don't know why it takes such a long time.  I don't care much about pancakes, but they make me miss IHOP in Delray Beach and the cafe in San Francisco though I forgot the name.
There was a drawing called fukubiki (福引), fortune drawing.  And to my fortunate I got a roll of Tsumugi (紬).  I chose very unique design of Yuki tsumugi (結城紬).  How generous they are!

After coming home, I checked the new year's cards called nengajo (年賀状).  I like to read something added by hand.  I really appreciate those who sent me new year's cards or Christmas cards because that means they spared some time for me and thinking of me.   I am glad to have such friends.

I had a very nice New Year's Day.

I hope you also had a good start of the new year!


O sechi ryori



Menu

Mt. Fuji this morning from my house
At Iseyama kotai jingu
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