End of the year 2008

The year is going our with a roar! We are having the heaviest snow storm of the year. This picture shows the view from our balcony at about 9 a.m. The forecast is for the storm to continue until some time tomorrow morning with a few breaks for the sun to come out.

Considering the temperature, we will be plowing through ankle deep snow tonight when we walk over to the shrines and temple. We have guests coming at about 6 p.m. After eating and drinking and chatting, we will wrap ourselves up in our heaviest winter coats and walk the kilometer to Futakashira Jinja (TwoColumns Shrine) where we will stand in line for a long time in, order to ring the bell to make the gods aware of us. We will also drink some Japanese sake, get our fortunes for the coming year, and buy some goodluck charms. Also we will put last years goodluck charms, with all the badness that they absorbed, into a bonfire in order to purify them.

Traditionally, we are supposed to send the day cleaning the house (like Spring cleaning) and then bathe, eat and drink, and go to the shrine or temple around midnight. In the morning, there is a meal with special New Years food and a first drink of sake. The big event in the morning is the arrival of the mail. People send each other New Years cards and the post office saves them and delivers them all on the morning of Jan 1st - making a lot of part time jobs for students.

We are not going to do much. The cleaning will only be in preparation for the party and, since it is just Masayo and I, we are not going to have any special food tomorrow. I expect that we will just relax, recovering from tonight's party.