Happy New Years!

Chionin Temple

New Years Morning

silence inside
the lip of a bell;
morning melts
a frosted sky-

under city street lights
the snow alights

soundless: still

the camellias
breathe softer
and softer
with the night

The new year stole into town on one of the coldest nights of the year. At least, that's how it felt to us. On the one night when we could spend traipsing (aka biking) around town until the wee morning hours, it was freezing cold and snow fell for the first time. At around 11:00 we went over to Chionin temple over by Gion for the traditional ringing in of the new year. All around Kyoto at midnight on New Years all of the temples ring their bells, and Chionin is the most famous of the temples. It has a massive metal bell which the monks ring 108 times in order to welcome the new year. From the rafters from which the bell hangs, a giant wooden beam is suspended by a multitude of ropes, and in order to ring the bell thirteen or so monks holding on to the ropes attached to the beam sway forward and backward, chanting, in order to gain momentum. There is then one monk at the front end of the beam closest to the bell holding on to the rope and when the optimal momentum is reached, this monk uses his body weight to yank the beam forward so that it hits the bell, his body sweeping bellow the beam just before it strikes metal. Quite a sight. And sound.

The Bell

It seemed like all of Kyoto was out and about on New Year's eve, and a good portion of it was there at the bell-ringing. The line was incredibly long and we only got to spend a few minutes actually in front of the bell before being swept, literally, towards the exit. Everyone was jostling around the area with the monks and the bell, phones held aloft, trying to catch a video/picture to commemorate the first minutes of 2010 (which, by the way, is hard to believe is here...it sounds so futuristic!). After we were pushed and shoved around and finally deposited at the exit, we headed over to Yasaka jinja, which is at the very end of Gion and next to Chionin for the bell-ringing after party. There were, again, swarms of people, but this time they were more spread out thankfully. The grounds were all lit up and there were stalls selling all sorts of festival food like kare age (fried chicken), corn on the cob, oconomiyaki (lettuce, egg, meat and other stuff mixed together like a pancake), baked sweet potatoes cut in thick strips, piping hot and sprinkled with sugar, chicken and beef kabobs, yaki soba , taiyaki (kind of like pancakes in the shape of a fish with sweet red bean, chocolate, or custard in the middle...mmmm delicious!), oden (which I don't even know how to describe except that it's kind of like a stew filled carrots, radishes, potatoes and other mysterious food stuffs)...We spent some time there eating and walking around and then headed back towards home. I think most of the big shrines have some sort of festival like this with lots of food and when we passed Heian jingu (another big shrine) there was a street full of more vendors.

Heian Jingu with all the food stalls!

When I finally got home it was about 2:30 AM and freezing cold. The snow came down in big wet flakes that swirled plentifully in the headlights of cars before dissipating on the ground. After turning off the main street and into my neighborhood all the crowds and noises faded away. It was so utterly quiet and the snow falling down with the almost-full moon shining above was so beautiful that I had to pause for a moment and just stand in the driveway, drinking it all in. All I could hear was the faint buzzing of the fluorescent street lights and the only movement was the snow drifting down onto the roofs, the street, my bike, the open camellias next to me with their wide pink petals stretched beneath the moon, soaking in its cool light...

Five hours later I was up again having a traditional new years breakfast with my family. My host mom prepared ozone, miso soup with mochi - a thick glutinous rice cake - which is a traditional food always eaten on New Years morning. She also made egg rolls, mashed chestnuts and sweet potatoes, these tiny salted fish with a soy sauce glaze, fish eggs, and kuro mame (sweet black beans). The fish eggs were really small and were thousands were packed together in a shape no bigger than an almond and when I bit into it there was a crunch and then lots of popping...it sounded like I was eating chips, except I was eating fish eggs. I won't lie, it was hard to swallow down.

A Mound of fish eggs at Daimaru Department store

Nishiki Market with all the New Years food

After breakfast, I went with my host parents to their local shrine, where they paid their respects and prayed for an auspicious new year. 2010 is the year of the tiger, so tiger images were everywhere. Later in the day, my host parents' daughter's family came over. There are three grandchildren and they are absolutely adorable! And incredibly well behaved. The seven-year old plays the piano and the six-year old plays the cello and they gave a performance. I was so impressed!

The next day, Saturday, the rest of the family came over for lunch and I met my brother's doppelganger...ok, not quite, but almost. My host parent's grandson looked so similar to Jon that it was surreal. I couldn't stop staring! haha. Even some of the movements were the same...weird.


On Sunday, I went with Meli to Shijo to go shopping! After new years, there are tons of sales going on and you can get things for really really cheap...which means, of course, hordes of people, yay! It was amazing. We went to OPA, this one department store, and there were GUARDS stationed on every floor with megaphones. MEGAPHONES!! with which they were directing traffic and telling people to watch out and proceed carefully. It was like they were controlling a mob scene, which, I guess, is close to what shopping after New Year's is like. The people who go are serious, and the stores are so crowded you get pushed into stores you don't even want to go in! I feel sorry for the sales people who have to work...their voices are probably gone by the end of the day. It's a tiring environment...

And now after all the excitement it's finally back to school for round 2! How does time fly so?

Happy New Year's everyone!