New Year Matsuri
The Japanese Chamber of Commerce, Japan-America Society, and even the Embassy have been pretty active this last year sponsoring events for the Japanese/Nikkei community. Aside from the obon matsuri that Ekoji Temple held in July, there was an Autumn matsuri and today there was a New Year matsuri.
If I have one complaint, it’s just that they try to cram a whole lot into a very, very limited space. The Autumn one was held outside and there was room to spread out, but they crammed the booths into one small area and made people fight it out. Today’s festival wasn’t much better in terms of space (although the temperature outside necessitated the indoor venue) - but it was nice to ring in the new year, however belatedly, in Japanese fashion. I had ozoni, M. had nikuman, and the three of us shared a bowl of oden. We saw mochitsuki, heard the requisite taiko drum, watched a shishi dance (MM most of all - she kept asking the lion if he was “okay”), bought an omikuji (mine was “near happiness” - 末吉） and cringed when a Japanese mezzo-soprano with some opera company belted out both “Kimi ga yo” (which only really sounds right when a junior high school band is banging it out in earnest solemnity) and the “Star Spangled Banner.” Neither of which was meant to be sung operatically, as far as I’m concerned. And MM was happy because she had a little bag of chocolate coins (=otoshidama) to play with.
In other news, M’s starting his first MBA classes this week (weather permitting - right now the snow is coming down pretty steadily), and I’m finally beginning to feel like maybe the disseration is a doable thing. I mean, we’ll see what happens really, but I’m starting to hate it a little less and get excited about it a little more. It’s about time, really; like I’ve said before, I do love my topic. I just have to quiet the, um, little voices.
