Free chicken

One day when I was still sick but so bored I decided to go downstairs and check my mailbox, I found something that looked like a New Year's card. This is a big thing in Japan, and people send hundreds of cards per year. I usually do not get any cards, since I do not send any.

As it turned out, this was not a New Year's card. It was a flyer from one of the nearby convenience stores, telling me that they would give me some friend chicken for free if I showed up with this card. I did, and they did. It was good.

The most boring New Year so far

My extremely unexciting New Year dinner

The second day into my winter break from work, I became sick. I kept being sick until it was time to go to work again a week later. This was the most boring New Year I have had since coming to Japan, and possibly the most boring New Year I have had ever.

Swedish food, which was excellent

I passed the time by watching endless amounts of movies and TV shows on my computer. Sometimes I got really bored and decided to cook some Swedish food. But that requires going to the supermarket and buy food, which I tried to avoid.

Inspired by the food I had gotten the last day at work, I also made some Spanish omelet at home.

Seven horses

At Ropossa I was shown a New Year post card that says "there are seven horses [not exactly correctly translated] hidden here". It was quite clever. If you cannot read Japanese, it is probably completely uninteresting, though, haha.

I was also shown a black and white photo that some people have trouble seeing what it shows, but once you have seen it clearly, you can never un-see it. And I was given a big nail to hammer through my hand, as a gift. Very sturdy construction.

Movie clip of me doing some magic at New Year

I put up a clip of me doing some magic for my brother's wife and her friends over New Year in Saitama.

New Year presents from Ropossa

Gifts!

Yesterday night I stopped by our magic bar and said Happy New Year to our owner. He and I then went to Ropossa, a fun "magic snack". It was super crowded! We got New Year gifts!

Mama swallowing a two meter long balloon

We also saw the Mama doing some magic, and we talked to a guy who is the leader of one of Sapporo's top "Yosakoi" dance teams. He was interested in having us come to one of their parties and perform magic for the dancers.

We got a pamphlet describing the Yosakoi team 

One of the gifts was a towel with a horse (2014 is the year of the horse)

More food pictures

Swedish cheese, Japanese chocolate and snacks.

Since not so much is going on here except eating, here are some more pictures with food.

Swedish bread and blue cheese in a tube

LeTao double cheese cake

Someone brought two whole boxes of these cream filled cakes

More crabs

Swedish cheese for breakfast

Very very sour "sour octopus" for breakfast

Saitama Winter Wonderland

Here in Saitama it does not feel much like New Year or winter by Swedish (or even Sapporo) standards. It is warm, distinctly not dark (Sweden is very dark this time of the year), and lacks snow. It is incredibly cold indoors though, colder than houses in Sapporo and much colder than houses in Sweden.

O-Sechi, O-Zouni, Japanese New Year food

O-Sechi

I am spending this New Year (and most previous New Years) eating absurd amounts of food. In Japan you eat 御節料理 (o-sechi ryouri) and お雑煮 (o-zouni). And lots of other things, of course.

O-Zouni

Japanese New Year: Stopping firework rockets with your groin

I was asked: "What are you doing during the New Year there in Japan?" I replied truthfully: "I am watching a traditional Japanese TV show. Right now a guy is stopping rocket fireworks with his groin." Japan is a slightly strange country, and the traditional celebrations are slightly different from what I am used to from Sweden.

Then again, I hammered a nail into my nose today, so I may not be in a position to call people out for doing strange things...

Futomaki, toshikoshi soba, LeTao cheese cake, and more

Every year my sister in law makes futomaki (sushi rolls). They are always excellent.

 We had lots of noodles for lunch; both yakisoba and spaghetti.

Of course, there was also toshikoshi soba ("pass the year soba noodles").

I had brought a cheese cake from the LeTao cheese cake maker. This is company from Otaru, the city next to Sapporo.

Japanese New Year: Hatsumode at Meiji Jingu

Me outside the Meiji Jingu grounds.

When the new year starts, you go to the Shinto shrines for "hatsumode" ("first visit"). If you go right after midnight when the new year has just started, there is usually a huge line and you have to wait for hours (if you go to one of the larger shrines). I once went to the Hokkaido Jingu in Sapporo, but the line was kilometers long, with 30 people abreast... and it is fairly cold here in the winter nights, so I gave up.

If you manage to reach the actual shrine, you throw some money in a basket, pull a rope connected to some bells (causing noise so the Gods know to listen to you), and pray for something (like passing the entrance exam to your favorite university). You also usually buy a form of written prediction of how your new year will turn out. You get things like "very lucky" or "not so lucky", and details about love life, money, etc. If you get some bad prediction, you can tie it to a tree in the shrine to have the bad effects canceled.

There are usually also tents selling alcohol, hot dogs, and general festival food. Having this kind of commerce on the shrine or temple grounds is very common in Japan, but was a bit strange to me at first. But the religions here seem fairly relaxed, and many shrines and temples put up Christmas decorations on the Buddhas or shrines and other things like that.

My brother and his girlfriend eating crepes outside the temple. The tents in the background is for getting people to donate blood.

People ahead of me in the line to the shrine. And the line turns around the corned and goes on for much longer.

This year I went to Meiji Jingu, which is possibly the most heavily visited shrine in Japan. I went there on January 3 in the hope that most people would have already done their hatsumode by now, so the line would not be that long. Compared to peak times, it was not long, but it still would take more than an hour of standing in line, so I once again gave up. I went to a nearby store selling funny t-shirts instead. As I understand, Meiji Jingu gets more than 3 million visitors during the first three days of the year. If you go there during the summer when nothing special is going on, there are around 10 other people or so.

Magic in Saitama

I was asked to do some magic when I was in Saitama. I did one show when my brother's girlfriend's younger brother was home from work. He only had one day off, so there was a special show mainly for him (though 6 other people where also watching).

The next day he was away working, but some other people showed up and I was asked to do two magic shows, one before the main meal and one after (one guest could not show up until quite late). There were 10 people watching these shows.

The encore rabbits.

I was also asked to do the trick they liked the most again, though everyone had seen it several times by then.... Usually I would not, but they were VERY insistent on an encore, so in the end I relented and it seemed most people did still not see how it was done.

The mini-FRISK that was not even mine!

The most popular trick was using a bunch of sponge rabbits. This was pretty good since last year was the year of the rabbit (now it has become the year of the dragon) so the tie in was good. I also did a trick with some FRISK breath mints changing size and the text changing etc. Later the guest that showed up last turned out to have a tiny FRISK box strapped to her phone, which was funny.

Japanese New Year: Endless amounts of food

My brother's girlfriend made some excellent "futo maki" (sushi rolls).

I had a fairly traditional Japanese New Year this year. In Japan, New Year is a big deal, and most people have several days off from work. You celebrate the new year with your family, so this is the time of year where it is most expensive and difficult to get plane tickets, and there used to be lines of cars standing still for 80 km when everyone was going back home to gather with their relatives or when everyone was going back to the cities to work after the holidays.

Some octopus, sushi, ham, and other things.

The main activity is doing nothing, and eating. Traditionally, not even housewives where supposed to work during the New Year celebration and they had to work lots before instead, making enough food to feed the whole extended family for three days.

Toshi koshi soba

There are some foods that you are supposed to eat. On the 31st, you eat "toshi koshi soba" ("bringing in the new year soba"), which means soba noodles, with no additions (i.e. no meat etc.) but in extreme amounts. You also eat "osechi ryouri", lots of small dishes of traditional food. Most are based on some kind of word-play system, so you eat beans to have a year where you are serious in studies or work because the word for bean is "mame" but "mame" is also the word for serious. There is also a lot of other food that you eat, and you drink a lot of alcohol.

Crabs are not particularly New Year but they are very Hokkaido, where I am from, so I am usually asked to bring crabs with me.

Sukiyaki

Swedish cheese is not normally available at Japanese New Year tables, but my brother had brought some with him which was nice for me. Also, cheese slicers like the one in this picture are almost unheard of in Japan (they get pre-sliced cheese here).

New Year Holiday

I went to Saitama (near Tokyo) to visit my brother's girlfriend's parents, who live there. My brother and his girlfriend also came to Japan, so we met up in Saitama.

I ate way too much food (all of it delicious), did 3 magic shows, saw mount Fuji (you can see it from their living room), bought some weird t-shirts, and generally had a good time.

I will update the blog more when I have time, now that I am back and actually have a computer at hand. First out is just a picture of my luggage for my 4 day stay in Saitama. In the "big" bag I just about managed to fit 3 t-shirts and the same amount of underwear. The small bag is much much heavier, and is full of magic props.