Japanese New Year

Happy New Year !

It is the beginning of a new year.

Hatsuyume（初夢）

is the Japanese word for the first dream had in the new year.
The hatsuyume was often the dream seen the night of January 1.
It is considered to be particularly good luck to dream of
Mount Fuji （富士）, a hawk （鷹）, and an eggplant （茄子）.

Mt. Fuji from Enoshima
Jan. 1, 2010

We can see Black Kite
(Milvus migrans) 鳶
family Hawk
flying in the sky of
Enoshima coast.

Osechi-ryori

We eat a special selection of dishes during the New Year celebration

called osechi-ryori (御節料理), typically shortened to osechi.

This consists of boiled seaweed (昆布, kombu),
fish cakes (蒲鉾, kamaboko),
mashed sweet potato with chestnut (栗きんとん, kurikinton),
and sweetened black soybeans (黒豆, kuromame).
Many of these dishes are sweet, sour, or dried,
so they can keep without refrigeration—the culinary traditions date
to a time before households had refrigerators.

Our Osechi-ryori of this year

Hatsumode
Hatsumode is the first trip to a shrine or temple.

Many people visit a shrine after midnight on December 31
or sometime during the day on January 1

We go to Enoshima-Shrine
to make wishes for this year.

We also buy lucky charms and

draw sacred lots to tell their fortunes of this year.

A sandō（参道,） visiting road

in Japanese architecture is the road
approaching either a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple.

May the New Year bring
many good things to you !
from Natsume☆ Anzu☆ Goma♪