New Year's Eve

Tonight will be my fourth New Year celebration in Japan. It hasn't gotten easier. Although at home in America the changing of the year is often a "party" holiday, in Japan it is a family holiday (more akin to the style of our Christmas). It is steeped in tradition... in which we have yet to participate.

Not that I totally mind... New Year's Eve is spent primarily cleaning the house and preparing for the festivities the next day. Not a bad tradition, in my mind, although not very fun. I think starting the year fresh (including the cleanliness of the house) is a GREAT idea. Pretty sure that will never take off at home though! :o) And for us, as Christians, there would be a fine line to walk between the family traditions and the religious traditions of the holiday - although, honestly, I would love to attend a midnight Buddist temple bell-ringing ceremony as an observer with my camera in hand. And I think it would be fun to learn the traditional New Year's games that families play or practice shodo (calligraphy) on what is thought of as the best day of the entire year to do it.

However, every year we are in Japan for New Year's, I am reminded of our isolation here. Despite the many friends we have made over the years, we have never been invited to join their family for mochi (a traditional New Years food made from pounded rice). While we might not have spent New Years with family at home, I am firmly reminded that we are far away from the familiar and alone here - and we are once again on the outside. For that's what "gaijin" means - "outside person."

So tonight, Dan and I will probably just hang out as usual, eating our conbini (convenience store) food and ring in the year of the Water Dragon a few hours early and go to bed. Perhaps we'll show our Japanese friends up and have traditionally good luck dreams of Mt. Fuji, hawks, and eggplants! And I could get up and watch the first sunrise of the year over the Pacific ocean too.

Oyasumi to 2011. Here's to a blessed 2012.