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[title]January 1 is the day of the year when Tokyo feels the most ‘Japanese’.
It all starts on New Year’s Eve. Families gather at home for the holidays, eat toshikoshi (‘year-crossing’) soba and watch NHK’s four-and-a-half-hour music extravaganza ‘Kohaku Uta Gassen’ on TV. After almost 50 acts have appeared on this ever so flashy spectacle, the show ends with a chorus version of the classic ‘Hotaru no Hikari’ song.
And then, suddenly, it’s 11.45pm and the programming cuts from the noisy battle between red and white teams of entertainers to a solemn scene of temple bells ringing in the night. Known as ‘Yuku toshi kuru toshi’ (‘the year that went and the year that comes’), this show always features scenes from some snow-covered temple or shrine, where people gather silently in the darkness of the night. This is where those of us in Tokyo all think ‘That looks so cold’ and start waiting for the clock to strike 12.
TV traditions and seasonal meals
Of course, not everyone in Japan spends New Year’s Eve like this. Some people head out to the annual martial arts matches or count down to the new year at a concert or club, while others relax at home, clean and watch a different show on TV – or settle in for a marathon DVD session.
However, even those people recognise that most of their fellow citizens will be watching ‘Kohaku’ and ‘that sluggish show’ afterwards – that’s how homogenous and ‘Japanese’ this country gets on the evening of December 31. Probably 20 or 30 percent of Tokyoites will be doing exactly what I described in the first paragraph.
Just like Christmas is a family holiday in the West, New Year’s is one in Japan. The original bits are that most people end their work for the year on December 28 and spend three days after January 1 eating the same traditional osechi ryori (new year’s food) before heading back to the office on January 4.
Well, what do Japanese people do on New Year’s Day then? In the morning, everyone gets together to wish each other a happy new year and eat the aforementioned osechi ryori. Actually, that’s it. This osechi truly is ‘the ultimate Japanese’ meal – something that isn’t eaten at any other times. It even includes ingredients that you’d never come across at other times of the year, such as chorogi (pickled Japanese artichoke tubers).
The osechi consists entirely of ready-made cold dishes, although it is served with warm zouni soup, which includes leafy vegetables, carrot and mochi rice cakes. Whether the soup is clear or made with miso and whether the mochi are round or square depends on the region – Tokyo’s zouni is clear with square bits. When the husband and wife in a family come from different parts of Japan, zouni-making can lead to rather intense arguments in the kitchen.
So, can you try this type of food at a restaurant? Nope – just like you probably wouldn’t be able to go out for a Thanksgiving dinner. The only exception is if you’re staying at a hotel during the first three days of the year, when some hotels offer osechi as part of their seasonal specials.
Therefore, if you’re visiting Tokyo on New Year’s Day and think the city feels awfully empty, it’s because all the Japanese people are at home doing exactly what I’ve just described. Know that shops will be closed too, as will most restaurants.
A time for prayer and walks
Well, don’t the Japanese do anything over New Year’s? Actually, there is one ‘duty’ that people ‘need’ to partake in. That’s hatsumode – the first prayer of the year.
The freezing midnight scene from ‘Yuku toshi kuru toshi’ I cited above depicts just that: people gathering silently for hatsumode. In Tokyo and all across Japan during the first week of the year, people head out to shrines and temples to say their thanks for the year that was and pray for happiness in the new year.
And the crowds are just as crazy as you’d expect. Both Meiji Shrine and Sensoji in Asakusa see a whopping three million visitors during this time, and with countless smaller shrines and temples found all around town, it’s safe to say that almost all of Tokyo’s more than 10 million residents take part in hatsumode at least once – some even go twice.
Then what should a traveller to or foreign resident of Tokyo do over the holidays? Sure, I remember how hard it was to be alone on Christmas in France or the UK. But there is one superb activity Tokyo offers at all times of the year: walking, that is.
January is usually sunny, and except for when the wind blows, temperatures are quite bearable. The reason for this fine winter weather is that the mountains running through the Japanese islands block the cold coming in from Siberia. This freezing air instead mixes with wet winds from the Pacific, resulting in heavy snowfall on the Sea of Japan side of the country – and a dry climate in Tokyo.
When in Tokyo around New Year’s, I would often see foreigners out walking with their families – something that used to strike me as quite odd. I asked a friend about this and was told that it’s rare to find such superb winter weather elsewhere, ‘so why not enjoy it’. Besides, there’s no need to navigate through any crowds!
The slow turn towards spring
This winter sunshine is sometimes called Nihonbare (‘Japanese sunshine’ or ‘’fair Japanese weather’), which fits with my description of New Year’s as the time when Tokyo feels most ‘Japanese’. As the poet Takuboku Ishikawa (1886-1912) put it in a tanka:
‘For some reason, I feel like this year will be a good one. The morning of New Year’s Day is sunny and still.’
This verse describes the New Year’s season in Tokyo well. And to add a little something to your stroll, it should be fun to stop by a shrine or temple too. Because the first three days of the year are ‘Japanese days’, quite a few people will be wearing traditional garb. The young women in colourful furisode kimono look especially impressive, and the kimono-clad boys stumbling next to them are always a cute sight too.
Well then, how about February? To put it bluntly, it’s all about waiting patiently for spring. One source of joy in this month is the blooming of the fragrant ume (plum) flowers, but even that is because they symbolise the coming of spring.
So nothing good happens in February? Not so fast – it is true that along with steamy August, this time of the year is considered particularly bad for business and tourism. But that, of course, means that there’s plenty of space wherever you go and various reservations are easy to come by.
That’s why I recommend visiting Japan during the time of the Lunar New Year, which is exactly what more and more tourists from our neighbouring countries are doing. As for Japanese people, they’ll all be skiing or soaking in hot springs away from Tokyo, impatiently waiting for spring to finally arrive.
Takeo Funabiki
Cultural anthropologist
1948, born in Tokyo
1972, BA, University of Tokyo, Faculty of Liberal Arts
1982, PhD in anthropology, Cambridge University, Graduate School of Social Anthropology
1983, University of Tokyo, College of Arts and Sciences, lecturer
1994, Professor
1996, University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, professor
2012, retired from the Graduate School, Professor Emeritus
Field work conducted in Hawaii, Tahiti, Japan (Yamagata Shonaiheiya), East Asia (China, Korea) and Melanesia/Polynesia (Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea). Professional interests include 1) mechanism of mutual interference of human culture and nature, 2) the representations of ritual and theatre, and 3) changes in culture and society that occur during the course of modernisation.