Happy New Year! I got January 2-5th off (but not the 6th…) free without needing to use any paid time off (and the 9th ends up being another holiday, ha!), and though I was originally thinking of going home for a holidays when I first came, Christmas and New Year’s, since my boyfriend is here, I figured I’d just hibernate with him for the winter and use the chance to sleep in, since I usually can’t on a normal weekday (the 6:30 am life). I know, I rarely get days off so I should use the chance to travel, and on the one hand I do want to get out town and out of the cold, but on the other, it’s a little bothersome to also get out of bed when I don’t have to wake up early, traveling anywhere further can get expensive, and also for any long trips I have to drain my pipes (such is the Hokkaido life…). Now that winter’s actually here, I didn’t really give winter break too much thought to reserve or book anything (I really was thinking about local places to go to besides the usual Sapporo), and I’m not doing anything much. I did a whole bunch of nothing over my days off, which sounds quite similar to how I’d be spending my time at work until the kids come back anyway, yet different in reality, but it really was some good days figuratively and literally chilling.
Anyway, New Year’s is supposed to be a big thing here in Japan, with the whole “first shrine visit”, and the big foods are New Year’s soba and/or osechi (though a survey of my fifth graders shows that anything goes and not many of my kids actually eat osechi, but I guess it just depends on the family). Since I’m not doing anything much over my days off, one of my co-worker friends invited me to hang out in Sapporo and go to a big shrine, and we chose to hang out on Monday the second. Since she lives in Otaru (and went back to her family for the winter holidays), the plan was to bus to Otaru, eat lunch (specifically leftover osechi!) at her place, and then she’d give me a ride to Sapporo and back.
Funnily enough, my boyfriend when he first came here wanted to do “all the Japanese things” and traditions and such, which included the New Year’s first shrine visit, and he was planning on going to my town’s shrine. He was very gung ho about it leading up to New Year’s Day (or as it seemed to me, though he will deny it), and really until he mentioned it, I really didn’t care or think too much of it. As it drew closer, he started getting a little unsure about it, mostly due to the weather since he isn’t a fan of going outside in the cold, and I actualy started to kind of look forward to it. The more I thought about it, and the more I heard from my Japanese coworkers made me want to go experience it at least once. Alas, once the day, and even the evening before, came, we decided to not go outside and just spend the day hibernating. We did plan our meals for the day though, and I made a soba dish with some store-bought ingredients from our grocery run the previous day (there were a lot of New Year’s promotions with luxurious food, soba ingredients, and osechi small dishes), and we did an at-home yakiniku with marinated meat from a local butcher shop.
Anyway, on January 2nd I would do my actual New Year’s hatsumode, and I later heard from my friend that the “hatsumode” period can last up until January 8th. The plan was to eat lunch at her place, and then do the shrine visit. Since I only needed to arrive for lunch, I got on the 10:00 bus to arrive around noon, and my friend picked me up from Otaru Station. Originally, my boyfriend was invited to tag along, but he had a scheduled work obligation and stayed home that day.
When I arrived at my friend’s house, her family actualy had most of the food already prepared, and because they made a whole lot for the big family as well as leftovers, everything was nicely separated into boxes, including a personalized set just for me, which I was really touched by. As is the case with leftovers, everything was basically cold except for the freshly cooked white rice, which usually is not how most people like their main food, but in this case, because the osechi was essentially many small dishes put together in an elaborate set up, surprisingly while I was eating all the dishes I didn’t feel the need for most of them to be warmed up.
Everything was so good (flavor and aesthetic-wise), and when my friend later asked me what my favorite was, it was really hard to pick one. A few that did stand out to me were the simmered items (pictured bottom left), the chawanmushi (pictured bottom right), and the red bean youkan (the dark red brick thing in the top left of my personalized box). I didn’t eat breakfast, as is somewhat usual on a non-work day, and I definitely ate a lot, partially due to that, and also because I wanted to eat everything and no waste her family’s hospitality. As I was eating, my friend’s grandma would occasionally chat and tell me about individual items or about osechi in general. Everyone helps out with preparation, and apparently it takes 3 whole days to finish making everything. Props to them, and thanks again to them for the amazing meal.
While eating, we were jut chatting with her other family members while a New Year’s tv program on finishing haikus was playing in the background. Although my friend already went on her actual first shrine visit the day before, the majority of her family still got ready to go out to the shrine that day as well. We ended up leaving around 2, and parked in a smaller, less popular parking lot behind Sumiyoshi Shrine, a pretty large shrine in Otaru.
When I arrived, I thought this shrine was pretty large. We went up the full flight of stairs, which wasn’t that much, and the view from pretty nice from up on the hill. My friend said on a clear day you can see the ocean, but it was cloudy and cold, so unfortunately not the day for that. Before we prayed at the shrine, we washed our hands at the rinsing area (? I don’t know the technicaly term, sorry!), and everyone was complaining how it was cold out, and the water was even colder! My friend’s dad treated me to 100 yen to throw into the shrine, and then my friend and I did the ‘two bows, two claps, and one bow’ prayer together, with the wish for the new year in between the claps and the last bow. Then we met up with the rest of her family and went to the side area where people were bustling and lining up to buy protection charms. I think her family did buy some, but my friend and I walked down to the end of the line and paid 100 yen to draw the basic fortunes. I actually drew the Dai Kichi, or the best one, so I got to keep it! Is this my year?!
After the rest of her family was done, my friend dropped off some of her family at her house with her car, and then the two of us were off to Sapporo to visit the biggest shrine in Hokkaido, Hokkaido Jingu. The drive was about 50 or so minutes, and we arrived around 4-ish. Even though it wasn’ t the first anymore and pretty late in the afternoon, there was a huge line of cars waiting to get to the main parking area for the shrine, and a whole bunch of people coming and going from the entrance. We managed to find a small parking lot a little bit, but not too far, away from the where the shrine was, and after parking, we entered one of the designated entrances and just followed the line of people towards the main entrance for the shrine.
Now I thought Sumiyoshi Shrine was spacious, but this one was definitely a different experience on a different level. The entrance had an entire walkway, courtyard itself was much bigger, the main shrine was grander, and there were two areas selling protective charms. Interestingly enough the places to clean your hands was closed off. We didn’t do the prayer thing again since we did it already, and after taking a brief look around, we went to look at the night market that was happening a bit down the path that we noticed earlier.
After taking a stroll around and browsing the options, everything looked and smelled so good, but my friend’s first choice was a Chinese jan bing, or a chewy savory pancake filled with meat and veggies. Though I’m Chinese, I didn’t quite recognize the item itself, which intrigued me all the more. We each got one, and it was piping hot but tasted pretty good. There was juicy minced meat and veggies in it, and the pancake was chewy as advertsied. Right before they sold it to us they spread some sauce on it, and it tasted very nostalgic. The hot item was perfect to start our snacking on a cold evening.
I had been thinking about the Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki for a bit since it looked pretty good and I like noodles, and my friend and I decided to split one. They were stocking up, so they handed us one that was already packaged, though it was still steaming. On the grill, it looked very appetizing and aesthetic, but it was all wrapped up to fit in the box, so it didn’t look quite as appealing. It overall still tasted pretty good even just holding the box in the cold while standing to eat, but such is the night market life.
The last thing we split was a cup of amazake, a sweet non-alcoholic drink, despite the name, that is a winter staple. I’ve never had it, so my friend offered to split one so I could try it, and by this point I could use a hot drink too. I don’t drink alcohol, and a big part of that is because the smell puts me off, but this amazake didn’t have any remnant smell. This too was piping hot, coming freshly scooped out of a giant vat, and it had chunks of rice pulp (I think?) in a sweet, creamy drink. I’m not sure if all amazake is like this, but I was a pretty big fan, and I’d be down to get it again.
We left around 5:45, drove back to Otaru, said our farewells, and then I got on the 7:20 bus home!
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