New Year's Festival at Meguro-Fudosan Ji

Last night I went to my friend Hatta-san's house for a New Year's Party. He had his own family, two families that were friends from college, another friend from work and his family, plus me. It was very nice. We had lots of food, including sashimi, sushi, yakitori, and meat. Just before midnight we ate cold soba noodles which is the traditional thing to do.

There was beer, sake, and champagne at midnight. After a year, I am starting to develop definite tastes about sake. I think the best is dry (karakuchi no sake) served cold (reishu). Ginjo is a region that makes good sake and is worth asking for.

On TV, they had various entertainment, just like the United States, and a countdown to midnight. It is very customary to go to the temple on New Years and they showed a number of them from all over Japan. There was entertainment and a large crowd at Zojo-ji which is the large temple down from my apartment.

We went to the temple close to Hatta-san's house and you can see the festival in the picture above. Hatta-san said the crowd was down from what it usually is due to the cold weather. The were serving ame-sake (sweet sake served hot) to keep the chill down. I bought a special arrow which is supposed to keep evil away.

When I got to the apartment, the fire alarm went off. At least I know the alarm system works well. We had to evacuate and I didn't get to bed until 3:00 am. It turned out to be dripping snow somehow set off the alarm. Oh well, at least I didn't have to go to work today.