Well, New Year’s Eve in Japan is a little different. Everything here is new to me, and the New Year’s celebration (called shougatsu) was especially unusual.
I lounged around the house most of the day, and then watched a movie (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) until about 10 o’clock. I walked down to the yakitori and met up with everyone there. The master and the part time help were cleaning the place up, and watching K1 boxing/judo on the television. There was a big tray of food on the table, and once people started arriving, we all snacked from the plate while we waited for midnight. I met the master’s parents, who came by and spent some time with us. I spoke enough Japanese to raise their hopes, but not enough to carry a conversation – they spoke fast and with little patience.
There was an intriguing countdown show on about half an hour before midnight. So this guy stands on this platform outside in the cold with nothing on but a loincloth, in front of a gigantic drum. He beats on the drum occasionally, and then takes a break to say some dramatic things in Japanese. During these breaks his assistants come up and give him things – once they gave him a banana to eat, some sake to drink. Several buckets of cold water were brought up and the poor guy dumped the water over himself.
Also during his breaks there are people pulling a gigantic pole on a rope, aimed so that when they let go of the rope it will come swinging right at the guy and the drum. This pole is huge, and the guy had to be hoping that everyone had a tight grip on the rope.
Finally, midnight hits, and everyone in the yakitori says “Happy New Year”. They said it in English! I don’t know if this is the custom or if everyone had studied in advance, but it was pretty cool.
Back on television, the guy pretty much ignored the stroke of midnight, and was reading a big piece of paper with shaking hands – he was freezing up there. They gave him a bow and arrow, and he fired the arrow somewhere – I didn’t see where it went, and I think neither did anyone else. Finally, he stepped down, and they let go of the rope. The pole swung down onto the drum, and everything exploded spectacularly. We’re talking a big, unsafe explosion. Fire everywhere – it was great!
Afterwards, the guy runs down to another platform and tries to walk across a tightrope stretched over a lake with fire burning on it somehow. He falls twice, and each time swims back to the shore and jumps into a kiddy pool full of warm water. The assistants bring him foods to eat each time, and he seems to be a pretty good sport about it.
Finally, we suited up and went over to the temple. There was a big lineup of people waiting to pray at the temple, and the bell was ringing in the background – 108 times for 108 sins from last year. Our group met some friends there and we stood around a fire pit keeping warm. I bought a fortune for next year, but I couldn’t read it. Most people tied their fortune to trees on the temple grounds, but I stuck mine in my pocket to translate later. The master assured me that it wouldn’t invalidate my fortune by doing that.
People kept coming up and wanting to drink sake with me – all you could drink sake was provided by the temple. Again we drank out of little square cups, and sake was getting spilled everywhere. After too much sake, I slipped into the prayer line with some of the yakitori gang, and we went up and prayed. I watched carefully the people in front of me, and I think I pulled it off OK.
We gathered up our things and left around 2 a.m., and I was home in bed by 2:15. It’s 2004.
