12/31

On Omisoka, various events are held to see out the old year. I enjoyed it in my own way. I really enjoyed Omisoka and Gantan very much, so I want to write it this time. I always play with my friends in the end of the year. I played with friends this year too. Shotaro, Yusei, Ryotaro are them. They are good friends. We always play in the Ryotaro’s house. He has a koya apart from his house. The koya is wooden. His father made the koya. He is good at a Sunday carpenter. We played there this time too. We were making a plan to enjoy Nabe. We were looking forward to it very much. But we spent a lot of time to prepare Nabe. It were take about two hours. The Nabe was kimchi Nabe. The taste was so good though we made it by ourself. We used many foods in the Nabe. Tohu, beaf, chicken, vegetables, gyoza, and so on. Any foods were good for us. We all enjoyed the Nabe. Then we had a field day talking about old times. Memories of the good old days came flooding back one after another. Especially I remembered that I often played to use a chair with Shotaro when we were junior high school students. We also watched TV eating Nabe. The TV show was Gakinotukai. I watch it in the end of the year every time so we watched it. Everyone like it I think, but we used small TV because Ryotaro only has it at the koya. It was too small to watch TV, so we could not enjoy TV fully. But to tell the truth, we always talked something each other. We did not concentrate it. Ryotaro says strange things all the time, so we can’t understand it. We often enjoy the situation. He is a funny man. I will call him Ryo from next. Then we counted down the beginning of the year watching countdownTV. We all ate Toshikoshi-soba. Ryo’s family made it for us. Toshikoshi-soba is a term for buckwheat noodles which are eaten on New Year’s Eve for good luck. The most commonly held explanation for the origin of Toshikoshi-soba is the wish for a “slim but long and healthy life,” like buckwheat noodles. There are also regions in Japan where the custom of eating soba noodles on New Year’s Eve is less popular. The soba was very good taste. Then we decided to go Hatsumode. Hatsumode is an event to pray for safety and peace for the year by visiting a shrine or temple, or church for the first time since the start of a new year. Every year, many worshippers visit the shrine in the New Year period. Then we were troubled with where should we go to pray. There were many choices, so we decided to decide to play cards. As result, we decided to go Sanshamairi. Sanshamairi which is a custom at various places in western Japan means visits to three shrines for Hatsumode on New Year’s Holidays. The people who live at the places where this custom has been established do Sanshamairi as a matter of course regardless of particular special piety, considering Hatsumode is Sanshamairi. But we had never done Sanshamairi before this. Moreover visiting multiple shrines on New Year’s Holidays sounds a little peculiar to the people who do not have a custom of Sanshamairi and some of them get it negatively saying “It may reduce appreciation,” and “It may be not so good”. Even though there are these thinking, we went Sanshamairi. We went to Kitaoka shrine first. We went there for the first time. I felt that the shrine is so beautiful of shrines I saw ever. Then we drew Omikuji at there. Omikuji are sacred lots drawn at shrines or temples to tell our fortune. The ratio of good to bad fortunes in the Omikuji varies among temples and shrines however in recent years some temples and shrines are reducing the ratio of bad fortunes. My fortune was Kichi. Kichi means fairly good. My friends fortunes were all Daikichi. Daikichi means very good. I was not so pleased because of it. In Hatsumode, a lot of people throw in as Saisen 45yen which means bringing good luck. But I didn’t have a five yen, so I threw 10yen in as a Saisen. Then we went Kengun shrine as second shrine. The shrine is famous among inhabitant of Kumamoto prefecture, so many people come to the shrine every year. But we had never been there, so we went there for the first time. The place was huge and a lot of people were in there. We thought that Kengun shrine is bigger than our local shrine, Wakamiya shrine. I think bad thing happened later because we thought it. Then we were going to go home after we enjoyed Kengun shrine, but bad thing happened at that time. Yes, suddenly it began to rain. We all thought that we must facing a penalty for our act soon. We considered if we won’t go their local shrine, god get angry with us. Because of it we felt really frightened, so we decided to go to our local shrine. Yes you know Wakamiya shrine. All people of Mifune town go Wakamiya shrine when Hatsumode every year. I don’t know Mifune’s person who don’t know Wakamiya shrine. It is famous among Mifune town. We visited to Wakamiya shrine with our sorry. I thought local is important and we should care for our local anytime. We were at ease because we went there. I had a hunch that good year will begin. Then we went home. We all were really sleepy, but very good day was. Happy New Year!

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