Hello and Happy New Year! Welcome to the Year of the Dog. Apparently this year is expected to bring prosperity, particularly to those who, like the dog, are proactive, work hard and communicate well. As the dog is full of energy, 2018 is supposed to offer plentiful opportunities for business and being sociable. Chart readers have warned that with these opportunities comes the risk of time-related pressures, stress, exhaustion and other health problems. They have also warned that this is particularly so for those born in the Year of the Dog, which Craig is, so, while I am hoping that these predictions come to fruition, I am also aware that we must keep a check on ourselves to make sure we take some time for R&R.

The Chinese zodiac cycle is very big here, having been adopted very early in the history of Japan when they adopted many Chinese practices and beliefs – Confucianism being another. When Buddhism arrived in Japan in the mid-6th century CE, the Japanese eagerly imported both the Buddhist teachings and the Zodiac calendar. The Zodiac calendar was officially adopted in 604 CE. The lunar calendar, however, was abandoned in 1872 in favour of the solar (Gregorian) calendar. So, while the Chinese still celebrate the new year based on the lunar calendar, the Japanese celebrate new year on 1^st January. Despite this many temples and shrines continue to use the lunar calendar for other important festivals and events.

What did we do on new year’s eve??? We had a nice dinner and a reasonable Prosecco (it is very hard to find much here in the way of Prosecco). We had decided to visit our local shrine (Toyokuni jinja) and the associated Buddhist temple (Hoko ji) to see in the new year and watch the bell being rung, so went up there at about 11:30. We watched tv before going up there, and again this year there was a show with five men who had to try not to laugh, while many and various people, situations and things were put before them trying to make them laugh. If they did laugh, they were called out and were whacked across their derrieres with a foam truncheon by men dressed in camouflage gear…!!?? It was hilarious again, if somewhat inappropriate at times.

 From last year

At 11:20 we went up to the shrine/temple complex, fully rugged up and prepared for a cold night. Luckily it was a clear night, no wind, so while cold it was not wet or blisteringly cold. I had hoped this year we would be able to take a turn at ringing the bell. It is a very large bell and more often than not, groups of four ring it together. Having Craig here, I thought it would be nice to literally ring in the new year. I had assumed that if we were there half an hour beforehand there would be a queue, but that it wouldn’t be too long. Wrong. When we arrived there were literally hundreds already queued, so we gave up on that idea and just watched the events.

The shrine lit up & me

During the day and near midnight

At around 11:50 the head monk came out to perform a ritual in front of the bell and then ring it once, after which the masses could have their turn. There was a slight hitch with the first attempt by the monk to ring the bell, ie it didn’t work. It seems the tree trunk which is used to hit the bell, which hangs by large chains from the belfry (think Japanese belfry), hadn’t been fully released from the bindings which hold it so that no-one can just go and ring it any time. A somewhat embarrassed looking assist fixed this hurriedly and then bell ringing proceedings began.

The monk starts proceedings

At midnight, as with last year, someone called out and everyone applauded. The sound of the bell and this quiet applause really is very peaceful and is a nice way to begin a new year. We stayed a little longer watching the many having their turn – some trying their hardest to hit the bell out of the belfry (or so it seemed), most getting it just right and some struggling to hit it hard enough to be heard – then we went over and joined the queue to pay our respects to kami at the shrine. There was a small group of fairly ‘lively’ young men in the queue ahead of us, and I did wonder at them coming to the shrine  in their ‘lively’ state (beers in hand), but they were just a bit noisy and otherwise didn’t bother anyone.

On to The House (soon to be The Minshuku Residence), the builders had a week off this week so not overly much has advanced. I was asked this week about my statement that the upstairs rooms had been wallpapered, yet the walls looked very mono-colour in the photos. Well, yes, that is absolutely true, the wallpaper we selected is a standard style of wallpaper in Japan, which is not patterned in the way wallpapers are in Australia. Rather, they are textured, appearing somewhat like material on the walls. Variations  are around the colour (many creams and whites and some other colours) and the type of texture pattern.

Wall (L) & tokonoma (R)

This is very traditional and we chose wallpaper for the guest rooms as it is fairly standard for traditional style rooms. We did ask about painting the rooms in our area, but we were told that painting here is very expensive and they considered that wallpaper made the walls stronger. We noticed that they do not do the flushing of the plasterboards, so perhaps that’s part of what adds to the cost of painting. All of the walls in our flat (apart from the wet room, of course) are wallpapered.

During the week we went for a walk to get out of the flat for a while and stretch our legs. I thought it would be nice to go to Yasaka shrine to see what post new year activities were happening and walk through some of the lovely Gion streets. We went via the small back streets near Kiyomizudera, which are lined with old shops. It’s a lovely walk unless the crowds are at their peak. That day it was a bit crowded, but not too bad. Mostly it seemed it was Japanese people enjoying the new year’s holidays. When we got to Maruyama park there were many stalls set up near the entrance to Yasaka jinja, which continued into the shrine area itself. They were mainly selling food and omikuji – telling your fortune for the coming year. Many of the fortune telling paper strips are folded up inside small ceramic animals – mostly the zodiac animals. This year, of course, the majority are dogs.

My last year’s omikuji (I’m a boar/pig and Year of Rooster)

Yesterday was a big day for us, we went to pick up our new car! Our salesman was excited to see us and as always was the nicest car salesman I have ever encountered. We are particularly difficult for him, having limited Japanese but, as ever, he did his best to communicate with us. I have noticed an increasing trend, particularly in the younger people we have encountered, to use Google translate to assist in the process. Now, I have to say that while Google translate may be fairly accurate in some languages, it is not that good at translating Japanese to English (and vice versa). None-the-less, we can mostly work out what they are trying to say via this method.

With Masaki-san, he is keen to learn, so we did a further translation for him so he could learn some of the correct English terms related to cars. It took a while to go through everything, but he wanted to make sure we understood everything, despite the fact that, in terms of the car, we already knew most of the things inside the car, such as the lights and windscreen wipers. Importantly, he was very helpful in setting up the GPS and went through how the audio worked and the tv…we had to have the tv option so we would have a screen for the reversing cameras. He insisted he take photos for us, and also wanted some for his records too. Also, we again got gift items as we were leaving, this time many more. Once more they were very practical things, such as laundry detergents and ziplock bags. We also got an engimono – a lucky charm generally made of ceramic, this one in the shape of this year’s animal, ie dog.

Craig drove us back to The House, where we are parking it, with little incident, despite the somewhat notorious Japanese habits of speeding (speed is rarely policed here, so if it says 50km/h, you can expect you will be the slowest car on the road if you drive at 50) and running red lights (they seem to be treated as recommendations rather than absolutes – never start driving or walking as soon as the light goes green unless the road is clear), amongst other things. At The House we had a quick look, since it was their first day back at work, and found them installing the air-cons in the guest rooms. Our area had also had some further work done.

Our bedroom (top) & kitchen awaiting installation with in-floor storage now installed

Well, so that’s our start to this very big year for us, a lot is still ahead, particularly in the next two months, getting everything set in place. We are REALLY looking forward to moving onto our new home!!!

More to come…

Cheers

Me with friends…