The New Year In Japan

I don't have a story for this, but I have random foggy memories of a few New Years in Japan. When I first returned to the U.S., I used to say that I had missed Christmases here in the states, but now I will miss the New Year in Japan. Here's why:

1. They close the entire country, for about three days, starting on January 1. There are no stores, restaurants, or government offices open. The trains do run, so someone is working. And there is mail delivery (I don't remember if on the first or the second), but they only deliver New Year's Cards. For the most part, people stay home, eat, visit their neighbors, stop in at the local shrine (if you are in Tokyo, there are a couple of shrines which are very crowded at New Years), eat some more, and relax. It's hard to be a type A personality for those three days. I believe that people will go back to work around the 4th or the 5th of January, but the first day they pretty much have an office party.

2. New Year's cards are post cards that everyone sends out to their friends, family and casual acquaintances during December. You can send them whenever you want, but they will not be delivered until after January 1. I always got a few. My Japanese friends literally got hundreds. One important thing to note is that almost all of the post cards are like lottery tickets. They all have a number on them, and certain numbers win prizes. All I ever won was a couple of pretty stamps, but I did keep them.

3. I don't remember a lot about Japanese New Year food, but I do remember that there were two kinds of soups, one sweet and one not. I believe that both had mochi, which I describe as a kind of Japanese rice dumpling (although that is not exactly right, and I'll link to a place where there is a better description.) All the food is the kind that can be prepared ahead, so that everyone works hard on December 31, but no one has to work at all on January 1. The other food I associate with New Year is the mikan. It is not strictly a New Year's food. But mikans are in season in December and January, and I recall spending many a lazy day sitting under the kotatsu, peeling and eating mikans.

4. I also associate New Years with sleeping. It really is a time to relax, and do as little as possible. One year, one of my students invited me to spend the New Year with his family, who lived near Mount Aso. So on December 31, I took the train and spent a few days with his family. All of the children in the family (teenagers) stayed up late on the 31st and went to the temple to hear the tolling of the bells. We all slept until noon the next morning (at least). And, to me, it was like a big slumber party, because, in traditional Japanese style, everyone slept on the floor, on futon, with lots of thick but light kakebuton. (And, I slept in the same room with the children, all of us on tatami mats.)

5. During the New Year, there are non-stop silly game shows on Japanese TV, all the time, along with popular music shows. That's about it. And I learned a couple of Japanese card games, using hanafuda cards,which it seemed as if we played nonstop, while staying in our robes and pajamas. I still have a set of those cards somewhere, although I don't remember the rules of the game any more.

6. Finally, during one New Year celebration a co-worker at the school where I taught invited me to wear kimono. This was a BIG DEAL and an all-day affair. I had to go to the beauty parlor to get my hair done especially (with brillo pad type things in the sides and a lot of teasing and hair spray to get my blonde hair the right shape), and it took some time to put on all of the layers of the expensive silk kimono. (If I get a picture up, please note the long sleeves, which usually are reserved for young, unmarried women.) Then another young worker and I got in her car and drove to the shrine and a couple of other places, to say, "Yoroshiku", which basically means, "Greetings," I think. I'll tell you, it's no mean feat to get into a car wearing a kimono, much less drive.

7. One of the things that happens during the New Year holiday is that people just drop by. When I visited my friends at Mt. Aso, they got into their car one afternoon, and went visiting a number of their friends, bringing little New Years gifts, and wishing blessings.

This is what you say in Japan at New Year's time: Akemashite Omedetoo Gozaimasu!

And so I wish you a Happy New Year to you as well.

Liberty Bell

Ever since visiting Philadelphia two years ago -- the Liberty Bell has been my favorite American symbol. I remember on that sweltering day in June going through the exhibit, and being impressed by the stories of how different people had used the image of the bell as they sought to expand freedom: from abolitionists to suffragetes, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Nelson Mandela and even the Dalai Lama. So what is it that has inspired people for so many years? Is it the history of the bell, the story of how it came to be, and its travels around the country? Is it perhaps the inscription, from Leviticus 25 -- "Proclaim liberty throughout the land" -- that suggests the year of jubilee and the justice promised? Is it that inscription, but instead because it shows us the religious roots of our democracy, and gives us a faith foundation for freedom?
I don't think so.

I think it's the crack.

Think about it. The bell proclaims our ideals, but the crack proclaims our imperfections. Together they are more powerful than the two would be apart.

The Bible is a book about saints with cracked lives. For me, that is part of its power. The people of God show God's glory, cracked lives and all. And we can still proclaim liberty, stand up to expand and work for justice, cracked lives and all.

Do you have a cracked life? I know I do. Sometimes we are so busy working on our cracks, or even sometimes hiding our cracks, that we think we don't have time to make our community or our world better. But we do.

So even if we aren't loving everything our country is doing right now, we can still love our country. We can love the ideals she stands for, and we can love the cracks, because they tell the honest truth: we still need to make things better.

As Martin Luther King once said, "Let freedom ring!"