AKEMASHITE OMEDETOU: HAPPY YEAR OF THE DRAGON!

Goodbye, Year of the Rabbit.  Hello, Year of the Dragon! Assuming that the Maya were being a bunch of Debbie downers and the world doesn't end in December 2012, the Year of the Dragon should be a good one, at least according to Chinese horoscopes (also consulted by the Japanese).  2012 is the year of the Water Dragon, making it a period of relative calm and luck.  It's also a good time for reflection and planning for the future.  

New years is a big deal in Japan.  The post office makes a mint in postage for new years cards, which are sent to family, friends and colleagues.  The only exception is if there has been a death within the immediate family that year.  The cards must be dropped off at the post office by the 29th in order to ensure delivery on the 1st of January.  Many of my students spent the weeks leading up to new years volunteering at their local post offices, helping to sort and organize new years cards.  

Houses are cleaned from stem to stern, and housewives spend days preparing enough food to last the family from January 1st-3rd, allowing the wives and mothers to relax during this time.  On new years day, most families travel to nearby shrines to pray, make donations, light incense and candles, and have their fortunes told for the upcoming year.  At Buddhist temples, the temple bell is rung 108 times, each gong representing an earthly desire that must be cast off.  

This year I eschewed the perhaps more traditionally American option of boozing at a glamorous party and rang in the new year at Todaiji temple in Nara City.  Todaiji is famous throughout Japan as the location of the country's largest Buddha statue.  We got in the queue at 10PM to await the opening of the doors at midnight, and ended up being among the first 50 people allowed inside.  And added bonus was that one of the national TV networks, NHK, was there filming for a program called 'Iku Toshi, Kuru Tohi' which means "Past Year, Coming Year."  We were spotted by various JET colleagues on television that night.  You can check out the video below- look for us at 0:25.  We should be easy to spot given the shiny, conical party hats we donned over our warm winter headgear as an expression of our western identity.**   

Once inside the temple, we made a beeline for the fortunes.  You pay a few hundred yen and are handed a long, octagonal wooden box, which you shake until a chopstick-sized piece of wood falls out of a small hole.  On the stick is a number.  The attendant then hands you a slip of paper corresponding to that number that has your fortune for the year listed on it.  

My fortune for 2012: good luck

After a quick fortune comparison, we made our way to the Buddha hole.  The Buddha hole is a small space cut at the base of one of the columns in the temple.  The opening is said to be the size of one of the giant Buddha's nostril.  If you can fit through, you are granted the blessings of the Buddha for a year.  I had a little difficulty squeezing through when I attempted this feat this summer, but apparently Japanese cooking has slimmed me, and this time I made it through with relative ease.  Blessings renewed, we made our way past the growing crowds and the vendors lined up along the street selling all kinds of food, including lucky noodles.  We found a spot in Nara Park far away from the deer and had a short champagne toast.  Then two. Then three.  A little toastier all around, we retreated to a warm apartment, where sous chef Paul and I made eggs benedict for the gang at 3AM, before falling dead asleep. Already, 2012 is off to a great start.



Todaiji at night

**(Japanese reactions included literally laughing in our faces, stopping us to ask why we were wearing the hats, slowing down as they were driving by in order to better stare and then wave at us, and openly discussing us on the train, speculating that maybe we were wearing them to look like ice cream cones?  My favorite moment was when a young man moved into our car on the train and sat across from us, until I waved at him and he realized that I am his English teacher at school. Shocked, he bowed, got up, and moved back into the car he'd just come from in order to relay to his friends that he had seen me.  I waved again and acted as though it were perfectly normal for me to be wearing a party hat over a ski cap.)

OLDER, YES. WISER? MEH.

I recently celebrated my 27th birthday, which as some of you know, is practically 30.  This reality is tough to face, made worse by the fact that according to Japanese culture, I am hurtling ever nearer to yakudoshi, or "the year(s) of calamity."  Yakudoshi is a period of 3 years, during which people undergo all sorts of hardships and bad luck, mainly because Japanese people seem to experience most of their health problems around this age (or so the story goes).  The pinnacle year is called taiyaku; the year before it maeyaku, and the one after atoyaku. Maeyaku and atoyaku may or may not be unlucky; taiyaku is the year to watch. 

The ages of yakudoshi vary depending on gender.  For men, the main taiyaku years are 25, 42 (which in Japanese can be pronounced shi-ni, or "death") and 61.  For women, they are 19, 33 (sanzan, or "terrible") and 37.  However, since Japanese people consider children to be 1 year old at birth, in the west we would designate the ages of taiyaku as 24, 41 and 60 for men, and 18, 32 and 36 for women.

What to do to guard against this impending horror?  Not much, really.  Pray at a temple.  Perform purification rituals.  Some people go to shrines with family and friends and break rice cakes into pieces, which are then passed among their entourage.  The rice cake is said to be misfortune, and when friends and family eat the pieces, they are sharing in the bad luck.  I'm still a few years away from yakudoshi, but I'm prepared to force feed you as many rice cakes as I can when I hit the danger zone.