It’s now New Year’s Eve. New Year’s is Japan’s biggest holiday.
There are many customs and decorations in Japan at this time of year.
I’ll introduce one to you:
年越しそば (Toshikoshi-soba).
Toshi-koshi-soba are noodles that are eaten on New Year’s Eve.
It is said to bring good luck for the coming year if the last thing you ate on New Year’s Eve was this dish.
よいお年を！ (Have a happy new year!)
明けましておめでとうございます！ (“Happy New Year!“)
It’s now 2010. The second decade of the 21st century!
2010 is the "Year Of The Tiger".
If you go to the Tokyo Tower by 2010 Jan 17 (8:00-10:00PM), you can see it lit up with "2010"
Every year on New Year’s Eve in Japan, many people watch 「紅白歌合戦」 (“Red And White Song Battle“) on TV.
It’s a music show with two teams of musicians (a “red” team and a “white” team…red and white are the colors or celebration) competing for points based on their live song performance.
Just before midnight, they countdown to the new year.
This show has been a New Year tradition in Japan for many years.
Last night we watched the show…as we usually do every year.
Here’s a clip of the show from yesterday.
And as I mentioned in an earlier post, Susan Boyle came to Japan to perform on this show last night. It was an excellent performance.
Here it is:
America also has a musical New Year countdown show that has been aired for many years. I used to watch it when I was a kid.
On this show, they show a illuminated ball descend a tower in New York City…the ball is timed to reach the bottom of the tower precisely at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
I haven’t seen this show since the mid-1980s…but I’m sure it’s still on the air every year.
As today is the start of a new decade, let’s look at Japan’s 「紅白歌合戦」 (“Red And White Song Battle“) from New Years Eve four decades ago (the year I was born)…
Here’s a clip from Japan’s 「紅白歌合戦」 (“Red And White Song Battle“) from New Year’s Eve 1969 → 1970:
I couldn’t find a clip from America’s “New Years Eve At Times Square” from the same time but here’s one from three decades ago (New Year’s Eve 1979 → 1980):
Time flies. TV and music (and life in general) is so different now!
How about ten years ago?
New Years Eve 1999 ushered in the year 2000 (the start of the 21st century). Remember the “Y2K scare” at that time?
Well here’s a clip that shows highlights of the New Years celebrations from that evening (1999 → 2000) from around the world:
In Japan, it’s almost midnight on 2009 December 31.
In about ten minutes the year 2010 will start in Japan.
Click here and you see the current time in Tokyo on my main website.
Last year, I wrote about 大晦日 (New Year’s Eve) in Japan and some of the customs in Japan…including 年越しそば (New Year noodles), which we ate today as we always do, and the 「紅白歌合戦」 (Red And White Music Battle) TV show that we’re watching now.
Click here to read my New Year’s Eve post from last year.
Since the year 2009 will be over in a matter of minutes (at least on this side of the world), how about a list of new words that entered the English language in 2009 and new words that entered the Japanese language this past year too?
New English-language words for 2009 (according to the Oxford Dictionary (since I don’t live in an English-speaking country, these were all new (and interesting) to me):
Intexticated – Distracting by sending text-messages via cell-phone while driving.
Paywall – Part of a website that is only available to paying subscribers.
Sexting – Sending explicit photos and/or text via cell-phone email.
Funemployed – Unemployed people taking advantage of their free-time to pursue interesting activities.
Choice Mom – A woman who chooses to be a single mother.
And the 2009 English-language “Word Of The Year”…Unfriend – To remove someone from your list of “Facebook friends”.
Are these words common in America (or other countries)?
And the new Japanese-language words in 2009:
「歴女」 (Rekijo) – (Eng. “History Women”) – Japanese women who are interested in Japanese history. It’s a new trend. They enjoy visiting historic spots in Japan such as graves of famous Samurai and other historic landmarks.
「ファスト・ファッション」 – (Eng. “Fast fashion”) – Due to the bad economy, cheap retail fashion stores such as “Uniqlo” and “Forever 21” have seen an increase in business.
「派遣切り」 (Haken-giri) – (Eng. “Temp Staff Cutbacks”) – It used to be that temporary staff of large companies could almost count on becoming permanent staff one day, but the economy has caused many companies to lay-off their temporary workers.
「政権交代」 (Seiken-Koutai) – (Eng. “Regime Change”) – The Liberal Democratic Party has won every Prime Minister election for decades…but this year Yukio Hatoyama of the Democratic Party Of Japan became the Prime Minister.
「新型インフルエンザ」 (Shingata-influenza) – (Eng. “New Flu”) – The Swine Flu is called New Flu in Japan.
Today is Christmas Eve.
In many ways X-mas and New Years are exact opposites of each other in Japan and Western countries.
In Western countries, Xmas is the biggest holiday of the year with the post office busy delivering Xmas cards, many stores are closed and families gather to enjoy a big dinner together and give gifts to children.
And then New Years is celebrated on New Years Eve and quietly ends the next day.
In Japan, it’s the other way around.
Here, Christmas is often celebrated in Xmas Eve by couples going on a date and families having a dinner of chicken and Xmas cake for dessert (just as many people have this dinner on Xmas Day as do on Xmas Eve). But Xmas ends quietly and people get ready for New Years…Japan’s biggest holiday.
Just like Xmas in the West, in Japan New Years is the biggest holiday of the year with the post office busy delivering 年賀状 (New Years postcards), many stores are closed and families gather to enjoy a big dinner together and give gifts (お年玉) to children.
Click here to read the post I wrote about Japanese Xmas last year.
Also, yesterday was 天皇誕生日 (the Emperor of Japan’s birthday).
Christmas isn’t a legal holiday in Japan…it’s a regular work / school day, but the Emperor’s birthday is a legal holiday.
It’s also one of the only two times a year that the public is allowed inside the inner grounds of the Imperial Palace (the other time is just after the New Year).
People who go into the Palace grounds can see the Japanese Royal Family and hear the Emperor give his annual birthday speech.
Last year, I wrote a post about the Emperor’s birthday too. Click here to read it.
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Completely unrelated, but I heard about a website called 「美人時計」 (“Beautiful Girl Clock“).
It show a new photograph every minute of a pretty girl in the Tokyo holding a board with the current time (of course in Japanese Standard Time (JST)).
This site is extremely popular. So they decided to make another version…now there’s a 「ギャル時計」 (“Gal Clock“) too.
“Gal” is a type of 渋谷 (Shibuya, Tokyo) girl fashion.
Click here for the 「美人時計」 (“Beautiful Girl Clock“).
And Click here for the 「ギャル時計」 (“Gal Clock“)
It’s now 11:50PM on December 31, 2008 (Japan Standard Time (JST)). Shortly, it’ll be 2009.
In late December, Japanese people say よいお年を (Yoi-otoshi-o) for “Happy New Year”…then January 1-3, it’s 明けましておめでとうございます (Akemashite-omedetou-gozaimasu).
As I’ve mentioned before (click here), お正月 (New Years) is the biggest holiday in Japan.
Today is 大晦日 (New Years Eve). On 大晦日 (New Years Eve) in Japan, many people eat 年越しそば (New Year’s noodles) and at midnight go to a temple for the Buddhist tradition of the temple priest’s ringing the temple bell 108 times.
(Click here to read my short FAQ entry about 大晦日 (New Years Eve) in Japan.)
Alot of people (including us this 大晦日 (New Years Eve)), watch one of the popular 大晦日 (New Years Eve) TV shows.
Most people watch 紅白歌合戦 (Red And White Team Music Battle)…but my kids wanted to watch ダウンタウンのガキの使いやあらへんで！！ (Downtown’s No Job For Kids!!)…it’s a crazy comedy variety program.
Tomorrow we’ll go to my in-laws (many of my wife’s relatives will come too) and we’ll have a big, traditional Japanese New Years dinner. My kids will get お年玉 (New Years Gift Money)…and we’ll give my kids’ cousins お年玉 (New Years Gift Money) too.
It’s a good time.
Oh, look at the time…5…4…3…2…1…明けましておめでとうございます (Happy New Year)!
Tokyo Five 
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