Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu (Happy New Year)

New Year's Eve.  It's never been my favorite holiday.  I've always felt like there is some unspoken pressure to have an incredible evening.  My friend (and former roommate) Vanessa is just the opposite.  She's always loved New Year's Eve.  When we were roommates, we hosted our fair share of parties and we've been to our fair share, even before we were roommates.  Often I would volunteer to be the designated driver.  It always seemed to lessen the pressure for me and also then I knew my friends would get home safely.  I have some really fun New Year's memories with my FL friends (like when Susan's sorority sister plummeted from a tree at Joe's party), some not so great ones (one Kathy can share with me--the day after the Party Bus) and of course some not-so-great (even worse than plummeting from a tree) for some people but funny for me, the sober, designated driver.  All of those memories seem like a lifetime ago, and in a way, they were.  They were made BK (Before Kids).  Now that I am living in the AK (After Kids) era of my life, New Year's Eve has taken on a very different look.

For our last year or two in Northern VA, we celebrated New Year's Eve during the day with Matt's grandparents.  I would bring the party supplies, we would have lunch and do the countdown at 12 noon rather than 12 midnight.  The kids loved it (and so did Matt's grandparents).  After dinner we would give the kids glow sticks to play with, let them use the noisemakers again and watch fireworks on CNN or on the Internet from London or Sydney.  The kids would go to bed at their usual time and they were happy.  Often, Matt and I wouldn't even stay up until midnight, but it was all good.

Now that we are in Japan, we've tweaked our celebrations a bit.  We've been trying to integrate the Japanese culture into our New Year's Eve.  New Year's is a huge holiday in Japan.  It is often celebrated for several days.  Japanese families and friends perform Hatsumode, the year's first worship at Buddhist and Shinto shrines shortly before midnight.  They pray for good health and happiness.  We don't do that, but we do hang kadomatsu, Japanese decorations made of pine straw and bamboo (in our case, a wreath) on our door for New Year's. 


The wreath symbolizes good luck.

I bought the wreath at the NEX last year in the section where they sell Japanese gifts, but I've seen "fresh" ones in the local farmer's market, complete with an orange in the bag.  (I do not know what the orange is all about--I will have to ask a Japanese lady I know.)  In Leah's & Aaron's Japanese Celebrations book it states that people burn their previous year's decorations and good luck charms in a big bonfire, or dondo-yaki.  I've not seen or heard of anyone around here doing that.  I hope it's not bad luck to re-use my kadomatsu two years in a row.

Another Japanese tradition we have embraced is toshikoshi-soba.  It is a Japanese tradition to eat long noodles on New Year's Eve to represent a long life.  Ours is not quite kosher, so to speak, as Matt makes his own chicken lo mein rather than make soba noodles in dashi (hot broth).  We totally messed up this year, however, as we mistakenly bought ramen noodles (not the 5-for-a-dollar variety) instead of the soba/lo mein noodles.  I think eating long noodles on New Year's Eve is definitely a tradition we will continue to do even after we leave Japan (although I'm sure Leah and Aaron would prefer eating spaghetti to lo mein).  

Matt is a wizard with a wok!

Matt used his Darth Vader light saber
chopsticks.

Leah and Aaron used the new dinosaur chopsticks the
McClintock's gave them for Christmas.

We ate dinner on the early side because Huis Ten Bosch, the Dutch-themed attraction/theme park (http://english.huistenbosch.co.jp/) located within walking distance of Hario, was having fireworks at both 6pm and midnight.  From the top of our apartment's parking garage, we can see the fireworks.  We knew the kids would not be able to stay up until midnight and they would not be able to watch any on TV as Sydney is about the only major city who celebrates New Year's before we do and that is only by an hour or two.  Matt quickly made some hot chocolate (or "cup of cheer" as Leah calls it) and put it in a thermos as we headed off to the parking garage.  We were the only people up there although some kids came out right when it ended 15 minuted later. 


We finally used our Thanksgivukkah
cocoa mix.

What's better than a cup of cheer and fireworks?

Oooohhh!

Aaaahhhh!

After we came back inside the apartment, the kids were really obnoxious.  They were like wind-up toys that had been wound as tight as possible.  They were running, yelling and playing with glow sticks and noise makers.  It really got on my nerves.  Finally, after a glow stick performance (think interpretive dance) and plenty of turns with the various noise makers, Matt and I were able to talk Leah and Aaron down and we all sat down to watch Escape to Witch Mountain (the 1975 original), which I checked out from the library.  I am happy to report that the kids loved it as much as I did when I was their age.

 

To truly appreciate a glow stick performance,
you must witness it in person.

Throw on some platform shoes and Leah
would resemble a 1976-era Elton John.

When the movie was finished, our New Year's Eve celebrations were almost finished too.  All that was left was a New Year's toast with sparkling cider and setting of the poppers full of confetti.



Leah and Aaron did not like the cider.  Aaron said it
tasted like, "carpet-flavored apple juice."



Unleash the confetti!

By the time the poppers were popped it was 10pm and the kids were tired.  They didn't complain when we told them it was time for bed.  Matt went to bed, too.  He wanted to be fast asleep before midnight.  Last year we made the mistake of going to bed after 11pm and then just as we were drifting off to sleep we were jolted awake by some 20-plus minutes of fireworks.  I stayed up until the fireworks ended; the three of them were sound asleep.  It's kind of strange not to watch the ball drop at midnight but AFN did air Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve live so we did a countdown and watched the ball drop at 2:00pm today (New Year's Day).  It was both surreal and fun to experience the countdown to midnight with our East Coast American friends even though it was after lunch time for us.

Like the Japanese, we pray for good health and happiness not only for ourselves but for our friends and family in 2014.  Happy New Year!