All through December we'll be showcasing the best of the holiday season in cities around the world. Today it's Christmastime in Tokyo and we've asked local experts for the essential ways to enjoy the winter's best. Visitors and locals alike come together to celebrate the holidays and the New Year, and we encourage you to share your own favorites with us in the comments below. You can find all of the cities we've already visited and stay up-to-date on the rest by bookmarking the series here. Traditionally, celebrating the New Year is much more
important than Christmas in Japan (less than one percent of Japanese are
Christians). Holidays come early in Tokyo, with many of the lighting ceremonies
happening mid-November and lasting through January. - January 1st to 3rd are called shogatsu (Japanese New Year's holidays) in Japan. January 1st is called gantan and is a Japanese national holiday. Shogatsu is the most important holiday in Japan. To celebrate, Japanese people eat osechi. Like a bento box, osechi offers foods that are colorful and presented in a lovely fashion. Each dish has a particular meaning. For example, prawns for long life, kuromame (sweet black soybeans) for health, kazunoko (herring roe) for fertility, tazukuri (teriyaki-flavored small sardines) for a good harvest, kurikinton (sweet chestnuts and mashed sweet potato) for happiness. Many local hotels and gourmet grocery stores take orders for osechi (available in traditional and Western versions).
- Japan lights up during the holidays. A must-see display is Sapporo White Illumination with more than 370,000 white lights decorating Odori Park and Ekimae Avenue. The Shibuya area from Dogenzaka to Miyamasuzaka and Koendori Street is decorated with more than 600,000 lights.
- Take to the sky at the top of the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills. Opened for its first holiday season, the Sky Deck is 886 feet above sea level and provides an open-air, 360-degree view of the city.
- Since the traditional Christmas celebrations are not observed, the holiday season has become a commercial event and locals like to shop. Among the popular places to shop in Tokyo are the Galleria at Tokyo Midtown, where you'll find upscale shops and boutiques, Omotesando Hills for high-end fashions, and Roppongi Hills for an eclectic mix of shops, cafés, and restaurants.
- Pick up specialty cakes during the holidays at the Café & Deli at The Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo. Other sweet shops that sell traditional pastries during this time, include Toshi Yoroizuka and Kyohayashiya.
- Get thee to a Temple. The Japanese all go to temple during the New Year holiday. New Year's Eve is relatively quiet, with the exception of the tolls of the temple bell. It rings 108 times to banish each of the 108 sins. At temple, people pray for safety, health, and good fortune.
Nori Akashi, Public Relations Manager
Japan National Tourist Organization
- Visit Hagoita Market
for decorative Hagoita wooden paddles thought to bring good luck for
the New Year. The colorful paddles have traditional paintings
and ornaments on them and can be purchased.
- Ekiden (a kind of marathon relay race) among college
teams. This two-day race starts in
central Tokyo and participants run to the peak of Hakone (a beautiful mountain
getaway outside of Tokyo). On the second day, the runners head back to central
Tokyo. Locals support the runners by cheering in the streets.
- The famous Tokyo Meiji-Jingu Shrine is a good place to visit on
New Year's to pray for good fortune. Yokozunas, the highest-ranked sumo
wrestlers, perform a traditional ritual in the courtyard of Meiji-Jingu Shrine.
- For Japanese, eating soba noodles is the traditional food
served on New Year's Eve (not just in Tokyo, but nationwide). Ameyoko market in
Ueno is an old-style street market good for stocking up on New Year's food such as osechi. The famous Tsukiji Fish Market is also
busy with people buying seafood to celebrate the new year.
- Join the crowds to usher in the new year with countdown held
at Zojoji temple, Tokyo Joy Police, Roppongi Hills, and other watefront venues
in Yokohama (Yokohama is right next to Tokyo).
- Eat "Toshikoshi soba" before the countdown to the New Year. It is believed that soba brings good luck and longevity because the noodles are physically long. These noodles are served at the Park Hyatt Tokyo Japanese restaurant Kozue on New Year's Eve for visiting guests.
- Celebrating the "first" time of something is of importance in Japan during the new year. Visiting a temple/shrine on the first of the new year is called hatsumode. Journey to a scenic place such as Mount Fuji to experience the first sunrise of the year.
- Participate in creating mochi rice cakes. In many restaurants, schools, and temples, the community comes together to make mochi on New Year's Day. Boiled sticky rice is placed in a wooden bucket and two people take turns to pat it with water, while the second person hits it with a large wooden hammer
- After New Year's visit a department store and purchase "Fukubukuro"--grab bags filled with random products which are sold at a discount of 50 percent. Many locals will purchase these bags from their favorite shops as they are familiar with the brand's items/products.
- Make it to the Imperial Palace on January 2nd for a rare
opportunity to see the Emperor give his annual New Year's greeting to the public.
Photo: top JNTO; osechi by 703 via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool
Subscribe to RSS feed
Subscribe to RSS feed
The last days of each year we are busy at home making the traditional food for January 1st, osechi ryori. This includes simmered, sweet black beans (kuromame), a marshmallow-like, sweet egg omelette (date maki), soy and sugar simmered tiny dried sardines (tazukuri) are just a tiny bit of what we prepare.
Each year ends with a quiet evening at home watching the Kohaku Uta Gassen, annual music show on NHK t.v.. Toshikoshi soba is slurped down, and then after midnight we head to the local shrine and make our wishes for the new year.
I am feeling very nice while reading that locals and visitors celebrate the holiday together, the whole world need the same feelings in their hearts to make this world a better place to live.
Shail
Agra India