Omisoka 大晦日

I really meant to start this on January 1st, but like many resolutions, it was quickly forgotten. However, spring is a time of new beginnings, so I'm back-tracking a little, but let's start from January. While Japan is a very modern country in many ways, a lot of people still observe traditional events and honour the seasons. I'm trying to follow the Japanese annual events and seasons, to give you an idea of what Japanese life is like for a fairly typical family. We live in an ordinary small town, about 50 mins from Tokyo, with fields of cabbages and spring onions next to convenience stores. 


So, let's start from December 31st, crossing into the new year. We had ten don - tempura shrimp on rice for dinner, and watched a combination of Kouhaku (the interminable singing competition) and Downtown (the equally painful comedy duo and friends), eating mikan and drinking beer, dozing and keeping warm under the kotatsu. 

Just before midnight I made toshikoshi soba, or "crossing the year soba". It's really simple and light. I got some mentsuyu - premade soba stock (basically dashi, soy, mirin etc). It's "straight type" but you still need to dilute it a little to taste. Cook your soba noodles for a few minutes in plain water till al dente, drain and rinse to get any starch off: you can feel the texture change. Then toss them into the soba stock, add a fistful of sliced green onion (naganegi), some greens like spinach or chingensai, etc and warm through. Put in a bowl and add a little thinly sliced yuzu peel.
At midnight we opened the windows and listened to the temple bells chime 108 times (we fell asleep well before they finished).