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So what did we get up to during the end of year holidays? Here you go! (Also, doesn't the cloud in the photo above look like a dragon breathing fire? The cloud on the far right is the fire, then his long snout, and his head and ear is in the middle, trailing off into his neck and body to the left with a front paw reaching forward to help him run across the sky? No? Just me? Well trust me, he's there to welcome the new year.)
Quick note! If the text appears out of order or nonsensical, try reading on a computer.
Christmas
Christmas Day
Christmas day is a typical work day here, unlike back home when stores and offices close. It is still busy as people prepare for the New Year and celebrate a secular Christmas in their own way such as going out with friends or loved ones. And yes, people do eat KFC for Christmas dinner here, although we passed it up. However another common thing is Christmas Cake which we did partake in. We found a cafe downtown that had a variety on display so we picked one up. They are very light cakes, with vanilla cake layers, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream instead of a butter or shortening frosting. We got the fancier version that had an extra layer of strawberries and it was quite delicious!
In terms of what we actually did, Jesse started the day by checking in with his family. We did some tidying and then we opened our small gifts, before visiting the British Cafe nearby. It is run by a Japanese man who lived in London for 12 years, so his English is quite good, and when he returned to Japan he decided to open a British cafe. He enjoys baking the cakes and scones, decorating the cafe for the various seasons, and chatting with his customers. I first went near the beginning of December, and he had lots of lovely Christmas decorations and then he added a live Christmas tree (the only live tree I saw).
Many places here decorate for Christmas, but it tends to be a small fake tree in a corner, or a garland and set of lights, but his café had plenty of decorations that were more similar to what we would see back home. And the live tree meant the room smelt lovely.
After a gingerbread hot chocolate for me and a gingerbread latte for Jesse we headed home. I decided to go to the bathhouse and then chatted with my family before making supper for us.
We have a tiny kitchen here with a single induction burner, sink, and very small amount of counter space between the two. I miss having an oven... but that meant no baking birds for supper. I ended up making mashed potatoes, a side salad, and bacon. We both absolutely devoured the mashed potatoes, and overall the meal was a success!
Welcoming in the New Year
Usually you purify yourself at a small fountain on your way in, but because of all the people that was unavailable on the first so you went right to the donation and prayer space, and then you had the chance to buy an amulet or other souvenir (called an omamori) from one of the 3 stalls, and pick your fortune.
To receive your fortune you shake a box that contains many numbered sticks and whichever stick falls out of the small hole at the bottom corresponds to the slip of paper with your fortune. At previous shrines I visited you generally pick up your paper yourself from a numbered set of drawers, but for efficiency this time you told your number to one of the four folks running the booth and they picked up the slip for you. There are 5 options; very bad luck, bad luck, neutral luck, good luck, and excellent luck. Jesse picked good luck while I picked excellent luck for the second time in a row! If you happen to get bad luck, never fear. There are places where you can tie up your fortune and leave your bad luck behind at the shrine.
After picking up a few more treats to munch on, we headed home. Overall we were at the shrine for about 2 hours, and even though it was nearly 2 in the morning, the main walkway was still full of people, and there was a steady trickle of people arriving by car or on foot.
Captions: (above) Jesse walking up the stairs leading to the shrine (right, top) the crowd in front of the prayer hall. You can see the rows of bells, each with a rope to ring it, and there is a donation box beneath. The crowd was very orderly in lines, even if you can't tell in the picture. (right, bottom) the line leading into the shrine when we were leaving with food stalls on either side.
New Year's Eve
At the British cafe, the owner introduced me to another lovely woman who works nearby at the Sendai Multicultural Centre. She and I had a wonderful conversation about this and that, and she gave me many suggestions and ideas of things we could do to celebrate the new year.
There is a big focus here on "firsts" of the new year, so things like your first visit to a shrine or temple in the new year, or the first meal, or the first reunion with friends. Many people choose to visit a shrine or temple at midnight, and since we live walking distance to the largest shrine in Sendai we decided to visit at midnight and join the crowd of people. Oosaki Hachiman Shrine is partway up one of the many hills nearby, and they added lanterns along the main road as well as all the way up the stairs, along the path, and all the way to the prayer hall. There were so many people! We were lined up 5 abreast along the path leading up to the shrine to maximize space, and they had people at the front of the line letting folks in about 40 at a time to pray as space opened up. Along each side of the main path there were also stalls which were mostly selling food. There was yakisoba (fried noodles), dumplings, fried meats, cotton candy, chocolate dipped bananas, and more.
If you want to learn more about Shinto and what it is like to pray at a Shinto shrine, I recommend this video. Jesse and I watched others to remind ourselves and did our best to follow the right steps, but even many of the locals do slightly different things, and the younger folks often fumbled as well. I haven't visited this particular shrine on a regular day, but I suspect they added a couple extra bells and donation boxes for the 1st! The other shrines I have visited generally only had 1 or maybe a couple, but certainly not 14!
Unfortunately there were some clouds low on the horizon which delayed the sunrise somewhat, although at least there were some clear skies and it wasn't raining which had been a risk. I haven't seen the sun rise over the ocean with clear skies before so I can't compare, but as the sun rose from behind the clouds it lit up the upper edge of the clouds quite beautifully so perhaps they enhanced the experience!
The second suggestion was to go up to the ruins of Aoba Castle (high on a hill nearby) or go out to the ocean to watch the first sunrise and Jesse and I figured... when in Rome! After playing cribbage and some time resting our eyes, we set off around 5:30 to walk up the hill. The sunrise was scheduled for around 6:50, but we didn't want to miss it and Jesse wanted time to fly his drone so we headed out in good time. There were other people there when we arrived, and the sky was noticeably starting to lighten, but sunrise was still a ways off, so we visited the shrine at the castle as well before joining the growing crowd by the railing facing east.
When you are on the hill you are high enough up that you can see all the way out to the ocean with the large shipping barges in Sendai Harbour. While I stayed at the railing with the majority of the crowd, Jesse hung back a ways to fly the drone. While we waited, the man to my right seemed to be quite experienced as he brought out special filters for the lenses of his camera, and the group of 3 young men to my left noticed the drone and were taking photos of it and looking around for Jesse which I found quite amusing.
After such a long night we walked home and got some much needed sleep. Thankfully we were somewhat awake when the earthquake alarms from the first quake went off on both our phones, although they did startle us regardless. We really didn't experience much. We had maybe 10-30 seconds of warning before the shaking started (it's hard to tell how long) and we experienced what I would describe as more swaying than shaking. In the grand scheme of things we are quite far away, so in the same way lower sounds with a larger wavelength travel further, the "body waves" of a quake which are less damaging are what reached us. That was all the shaking we felt, even with the aftershocks that continued, and because we are on the east coast we didn't have a tsunami warning or advisory.
The rest of January first was uneventful as we relaxed at home. However Jesse also planned our morning for the second. See January 1st is the day when nearly everything shuts down here. Many smaller businesses closed around December 30th or 31st, with plans to reopen anywhere from the 2nd to 5th of January. However, here in Sendai there is a tradition of buisnesses creating goodie bags for their customers and giving them out at the new year. In the past they were purely gifts, however now they are effectively blind-bags that you buy for a set price, but the value of the unknown contents typically exceeds the amount you paid. The shopping streets downtown had posted which businesses were going to be opening when, in addition to the hours and locations of other events like free food or drinks, and performances. He found a couple that were of interest so on the second we headed downtown.
Now, I have not been shopping on boxing day in Canada, but I assume this was the Japanese equivalent. However, because it is Japan, everything was very orderly despite the crowds. Folks here are even line up in a zig-zag "S"-shaped line without stanchions! My favourite part was the Taiko drumming performances.
Bunch of goodies! Some Hokkaido chips and pastries, various cookies + rice-based desserts, and plenty of Zunda. All very tasty!
One last fun thing! Right before Christmas, a movie came out that features characters from an anime that Jesse and I quite enjoy. The show is "Spy x Family" and the premise is that a super spy has to infiltrate an annual party for the top scholars at a prestigious private school in order to meet an elusive politician. So he adopts a daughter (who happens to be a telepath) and finds a woman to be his wife (who is secretly an assassin) and they are a happy family while keeping their second identities a secret from the others. It's a show with a lot of silliness and action.
The movie is titled "Spy x Family: Code White" and features a separate side story. We had a good time watching it! Thankfully because of all the action, we have a fair idea of the story even though we missed most of the dialogue. We will try and watch it in English at some point to catch the finer details we missed the first time through.
The theater was unremarkable, although rather than spreading the rooms out along one long hallway, they had two floors of theaters with escalators. And they gave us these books for free! They have character drawings, profiles, activities, and probably more but it's all in Japanese of course.
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