Snowy silents

山の雪

Mountain snow (snapped while bouncing along on the omnibus between Matsue and Hiroshima - a flying visit to take advantage of the sales).

Osechi New Year's Food

During the New Year festivities, I visited Her Lady Of The Snows' retreat in the hillsides of ol' Hirosh, whereupon I enjoyed the company of her mother and sister, and together we feasted on the food of the New Year period, Japanese osechi, accompanied with free-flowing wine and concluded with an orange chocolate log cake, drizzled in dark chocolate and agleam with gold leaf.

This delicious meal of osechi cuisine consisted of pickled vegetables, fish eggs in mayonnaise (for fertility), kuromame or black soy beans (for good health), gobo or burdock root, lotus root and sweet potato. The yellow round with a white spiral is made from egg and sugar and had a fluffy, cake-like texture.

An enormous plate of tempura (leek, prawn, pumpkin, cauliflower & c) accompanied the meal

The Year of the Rat

2008 is the Year of the Rat and to my reader(s) I send my rattiest regards for the New Year! May your whiskers grow long, your eyes beadier and your squeak more tremulous in the coming months.

My ornamental New Year's rodent

Jozan Inari Shrine in snow. On the right, one can see a bincontaining the discarded arrows of 2007, Year of the Boar. These will be burned later. Behind thewindow next to this bin, one can see the gleam of the 2008 arrows portraying the Rat.

This New Year Sir S and I partook in the local traditions of Eating Soba at Midnight (the noodles represent longevity), Visiting a Shrine after Midnight for a Cup of Sake and a Prayer, playing the card game Hanafuda (flower cards) and Tossing Out the Boar's Hamaya, or arrow, and purchasing a Ratty Arrow to replace it.

With Mistress P of the Turkish Cigarettes, we visited a shrine, the grounds of which were dotted with a series of tiny shrines like little houses. All were festooned with diamond-shaped chains of white folded paper. My favourite one contained a pair of snow-white foxes facing each other before a row of guttering candles and a tiny army of silver-white fox ornaments, and mysterious golden objects glinted in the shadows. The path was lit with beautiful paper lanterns and the snow crunched underfoot. I did not wish to depart from its otherworldly atmos, but after a while the cold drove me homewards.

Ratty Hamaya

Many doors (and cars) are cheerfully decorated with a New Year wreath, a circle of rope bearing an orange and sometimes a twist of white, diamond-shaped paper. In homes, an ornament is displayed featuring the year's zodiac animal. And so it was that I booted boar-features from the top of the telly and replaced it with a blossom-bedecked ratty.

A New Year's wreath, Matsue Castle district

Gaily decorated and ratty nengajo, or New Year cards, were sent and received. Every December stationery shops are stocked full of New Year card paraphenalia, such as postcards, stamps, stickers and seals portraying the specific zodiac animal of the coming New Year. Some people go to great trouble and make and decorate cards themselves, others send so many cards that they arrange a special order at a printing shop. I met a fellow recently who posted out more than 400 cards! People send cards to friends, family, acquaintances and coworkers, and businesses often send cards to their clients (both Sir S and I received cards from our hairdressers, including the amusingly named Claps). One must not send cards to people who are in mourning (generally the mourner notifies friends by card of their Don't Send Me A New Year Card status prior to December). Sending New Year cards is done on a massive scale here, much like Christmas cards in Western countries, with the exception that Japan Post coordinate a January 1st delivery. People send their cards throughout December and the Post Office holds them, delivering them on New Year's Day.**

New Year cards, and a ratty sweet***

*2007's zodiac animal
** However, this year it seems there could be a rat in the works, as some of my friends' cards that I know have been posted have not yet arrived. This could be due to the recent privatisation of the post office.
*** From the delightful Craaaazy Aya.

Winter days

Further snaps of snowy Matsue, taken at St Hearn's sports ground and by the river near our apartment.

View across the river from my apartment.

Snowmen on the sports ground of St Hearn's.

On your marks, get set ...

By the river.

Wren-steps.