Hokkaido Jingu - A Cold Snowy Hatsumode

2nd Jan, 2005 - Whilst it's best to visit the local Shrine shortly into the New Year, there's generally a bit of grace period... which is good because if everyone went at the same time it would be VERY BUSY. Even on the second of Jan, it was quite busy at Hokkaido Jingu or Shrine. This was my first Hatsumōde, even though I had seen examples of it on TV. In Hokkaido, it is a cold experience... but you certainly know you've been.

The shrine itself is (literally) sealed off behind plastic. I'm not sure if that's to keep the people or the snow out, but it didn't seem to degrade people's enthusiasm. The offering box has also been moved out of the Shrine... this is peak time for throwing some copper in the collection box for good luck.

There's always other things to do - such buy and put up an ema board (which mean picture-horse) as a personal votive offering. Actually ema originated from horse offerings to the Shinto Gods. It's a good thing that the offering has been simplified somewhat... might be hard carrying around a horse in this day and age - especially in the car.

And if ema aren't your thing than you can always buy a charm - and you will find an abundance of charms for every occasion at most Shinto Shrines.

Examples are shown below with the essential New Year fortune (left) known as omikuji, and an example of one of the overall good luck charms (right) known as omamori. There are a set number of fortune templates that you can get - ranging from good to bad. This particular omikuji is known as suekichi - and is generally one of the worse ones. What I should have done was to have tied the bad omikuji to one of the stands (or attached to pine trees) allowing you to free yourself of the bad luck. I forgot. D'oh!

 This Omamori is for general good luck, and its the sort of thing that you keep close to you (this one calls my wallet home).... but then again I also keep my bad-luck omikuji there! Do these balance out?

The day comes to an end... like many if not all shrines in Japan, the approach to the shrine is often where you will find many street vendors - especially food vendors. On a cold day like today - something hot to eat is a good option. You'll find such culinary delights as chocolate banana's, cotton candy, frankfurts and amazake (a low alcohol rice wine). Ok - it won't win any food awards.

It was a good day - but remember to be prepared for lots of people. And very busy car parks. Even in the cold Hokkaido winter.

A 2005 New Year - Of Snow and Fukubukuro

1st Jan, 2005 - After an eventful night, we awoke to find the world covered in an even thicker quilt of white, cold snow. The new year would be a cold one, if the first day was anything to go by.

In Japan, there is a concept of the first of the year.. such as the first sunrise (Hatsuhinode) or the first visit of to the local Shinto Shrine (Hatsumōde)... in this case it was going to be the first snow-shovel of the year. I'm not sure what you would call that in Japanese... Actually T-chan's family are lucky (with a new-ish house) in that they have a heated driveway.... however, on a bad day, even that doesn't help you!

T-chan helps - but I get the feeling that she's a little over-dressed. One of the down-sides of coming back to Japan from Australia is that you often don't bring a wide range of clothes. Certainly not enough clothes for every occasion.

It wasn't such good weather to visit Hokkaido Shrine, so we looked for nearer things to do... After clearing the driveway and cars, T-chan and I go to do some New Years shopping at the local Seiyu store (a cross between supermarket and department store)... 

There's a tradition in Japan of the "fukubukuro" (or lucky bag). It's based on the idea of a lucky dip - a shop will often have a range of sealed bags which can be purchased at reasonable prices 2,000 - 10,000 yen. You don't know (generally) what's inside until you've bought it, but it's generally (fingers crossed) a good bargain. The good thing about buying fukubukuro is that you can always on-sell on the internet auction sites (the discounts are often > 50+% off), so you can even come out of it with a little pocket money if you don't like what you find. I was happy with my choice - 

Actually Seiyu was controlled by Walmart (the US giant) who purchased a controlling share in December 2005 - and since they have owned it, the chain supermarket/department store has been going downhill. It just goes to show that some commercial business models do not translate well in a global economy. There have been some positives however with Seiyu being one of the first retailers to gain ISO 14001 certification for eco-management in 2007 (well before green-bonanza - which faded into the green-almost-revolution as the world's economies headed south in the global financial crisis). Unfortunately, Walmart didn't appreciate that the Japanese actually would pay more for quality - and infact, did not necessarily respond well to the "we sell for less" mantra.

Shopping over, we headed  back home. The rest of Sapporo was looking like a premonition of things to come. New Years Day in Japan is always pretty quiet - with people electing to spend quality time at home instead. Of course, it doesn't help when the weather's cold out.

The local shops are "on holidays" for the day... but it won't take long for business to pick-up again (even with a lot of snow). It's nice to know that even in the heart of the capitalist dream, that the Japanese can take time out to relax (when they're not buying fukubukuro).

Despite the snow of the night before, the snow-tractors (employed  by the local government to keep the roads clear) are often out of commission on New Years Day in the suburban streets. Anyway - it's meant to be a holiday isn't it?

New Year's Eve 2004 - Families Together

New Years Eve, 2004 - This was going to be a slightly different New Years, and my first one in Japan. T-chan's family had put together a wonderful dinner -including the hokkaido kegani or hairy crab (bottom), sashimi (middle), the vegetable stew known as umani and a special dish of osechi (top) which is a traditional New Year dish that is designed to keep long enough to last through the New Year - and is meant to give the overworked mother a break. The four blue-ish cups are for chawanmushi, a steamed egg custard dish that T-chan's mother calls her "treasure pot". Towards the end of the night, T-chan,s family will then have toshikoshi (year passing) soba noodles which are meant to be good luck for life into the new year. New year is also the time for the long, long variety shows on tv. It's an interesting night.

Before we got to eat the wonderful dinner however, we had to thoroughly clean the house. From top to bottom. It's also an old tradition (called ōsōji) to welcome the new year in with a clean house. It's a bit old-school, and I have to say, hard work... but then again, it adds to the sense of a family day as everyone gets involved.

This New Years was going to be especially meaningful for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons why we were back in Japan again was because T-chan's grandfather (ojiichan) had become very sick. T-chan's family had renovated their garage into a small apartment for him (rather than living in an old-age facility). He was really not well - and whilst we didn't talk about it, we knew this was likely to be his last New Years. He had been in hospital for a while before I had arrived, and had been given permission to be discharged for the weekend to be with family. I had met ojiichan first on my previous trip, and he had come to our pre-wedding party at the Grand Hotel. He was one of these indomitable characters that still had a great deal of life even in the direst of circumstances.

Ojiichan enjoyed the New Years Eve dinner with his family, and it was a special moment. Unfortunately however, ojiichan became sick again shortly after and was re-admitted to hospital. A few months after we had come back from Japan, we heard the sad news that ojiichan had passed away. This had been T-chan's last chance to be with her grandfather. It was both a sad and happy time for us - certainly, it can be hard on families when you immigrate to another country. We were very glad to have come back when we did - and were able to share the time with ojiichan. It was a special New Years Eve.

Rest in peace, and thankyou for everything ojiichan.

A Beautiful Winter's Morning in Sapporo

30th December, 2004 - It's a cold, but clear Sapporo winter morning. The penultimate day of the year. A light snow covers the cars, the garden is now well and truly in hibernation underneath it's protective shrouds which had been put on about two months earlier.

The world looks different than it had in Autumn when we were last here.

Yet today is a day of preparation... We've an important job to do. To prepare the Mayudama. Mayudama is a very old custom of attaching ball-like ornaments to branches for hanging at New Years time. Depending on who you believe, they represent either mochi (rice cakes) or silkworm cocoons. If the former they are called mochibana (which are larger). Either way they are meant to represent prosperity for the new year.

I'm not entirely sure what all the other items are supposed to signify however... overall, it feels a bit like decorating the Christmas Tree - but an "olden time" Christmas Tree. Actually these ones are a little strange. They come as two semi-spheres, and you glue them together (around a branch) by adding water to one surface which must soften/break down the chemical bonds allowing them to re-form once you bring the two halves together. It was fun, if a little odd.

Some of us however were less than impressed by the effort. Momo (T-chan's cat) was more concerned about soaking up the suns rays. What a life!