Oshogatsu

So it's about time I covered Oshogatsu (the New Years holidays). On December 30th, the day after I got back from ski camp, we flew to Osaka to spend 4 nights in Osaka with Hideaki's family. It's what we do every year, although this year was a bit shorter than usual and much more eventful.

At Haneda airport I saw my last sunset of the year, with Mount Fuji barely visible in the distance. I took that as a good sign, having seen it the day before as well, and vowed to keep Fuji on my mind-- it is lucky to dream about the mountain on the night of January 1st.

We arrived at Hideaki's parent's house to a wonderful scene: Atsuko, Hisashi and Marya busy putting dinner on the table and pouring pink bubbly. Here's what we had:

• Three types of grilled himono (split and partly dried fish) of which I chose aji (horse mackerel)
• Grilled squid
• Sunomono (vinegar-dressed food) of salmon wrapped in very thin slices of kabu (turnip)
• Grilled thinly sliced pork dressed with a gingery sauce of negi (green onions) and cucumbers
• Nameko-orishi (slippery nameko mushrooms with grated daikon)

It was all delicious and I really liked the oil-rich himono, although Hideaki was a bit disappointed-- he was hoping for beef (his parent's house is one of the few places he can eat it, since we normally don't serve it at home).

The next day came with a surprise: an email from Hidetoshi, my husband's long lost brother. He lives in Hokkaido and almost never visits, calls or writes. He hasn't been seen in years and Hisashi, who has yet to meet him, likely believes he is a figment of our imaginations.

But with the email came notice of a package that would arrive that day, something tasty from Hokkaido. We were hoping for crab and that's what it was! Two kinds: tarabagani (king crab) and kegani (horsehair crab).

It was so delicious we ate it as-is, with no dipping sauce. Both kinds were tasty, but the favourite seemed to be the sweeter, delicate kegani. It's harder to eat though and comes out of the shell in little pieces. I actually preferred the tarabagani, with its richer flavour ease of eating-- the leg meat can be pulled out of the shell in one big piece, which is immensely satisfying.

But it's not just the legs that are eaten. The tops of the shells are served as well, with all of the tasty kanimiso (coral, called literally "crab miso" due to its resemblance to miso). The stuff is incredibly rich and has a deep oceany flavour. I like it but a little goes a long way; I prefer to dip some crab meat in it than to eat it by itself.

Drinking it is nice too. Especially when the shell is full of daiginjo-shu (top quality sake), creating an incredibly delicious and decadent cocktail.

After the crab came soba (buckwheat noodles), but not just any soba- this was New Year's Eve, which calls for toshikoshi soba ("year crossing" noodles). As usual, they were served in hot broth with a choice of nishin no kanroni (herring braised in sweet soy sauce) or ebi tempura (deep-fried shrimp). The nishin is my favourite, but I got a little shrimp on the side too.

After staying up to toast the New Year, it was off to bed. We were awoken early for the traditional breakfast of osechi:

Osechi are the auspicious and symbolic foods served for the first three days of the year. They are cooked during the last few days of the previous year with lots of salt, sugar and other seasonings, and are supposed to be able to keep without refrigeration for the duration of the holidays. This is made easier by the fact that Japanese houses, or at least the entrance areas, were unheated and therefore freezing cold. Osechi is meant to give the women of the house a bit of a break from cooking.

My mother-in-law serves the same things every year, some home-made and some store-bought. I hope to update this post soon with explanations of all the foods, but until then see this old Osechi post to find out what each item is and what New Year's wish it represents.

Otoso (sake flavoured with medicinal herbs and sugar) is served with the osechi, and when that's done ozoni is served. There are a myriad of variations of this soup, but they all have one thing in common- a cake of mochi (pounded sticky rice) at the bottom of the bowl. My mother-in-law's version is a clear soup with chicken, hakusai (Chinese cabbage), a slice of naruto (fish past "sausage"), mitsuba (trefoil) and a square of mochi. This mochi is extra-delicious, having been made by Hisashi's parents. They send a few big blocks of it every year, and it's Hisashi's job to cut it into squares. Home made mochi is a thousand times better than store-bought, and luckily there is always enough for us to take back to Tokyo with us.

Meanwhile, in between all the feasting, my niece Marya was happy to entertain us. She is almost two and at that wonderful age where she still has the (mostly) sweet disposition of a baby but can move and communicate like a toddler. She loves to play with all the grown ups and especially likes dancing with us. Unfortunately she refuses to dance unless we all dance and clap along too, so playing with her is hard work. But it's all worth it to see her lovely smile.

When not eating or playing with Marya, Oshogatsu is spent playing hanafuda ("flower cards", a traditional card game for three players). The cards are beautiful (you probably remember them from my Nengajo post a few days back) and one of these days I'm going to have to dedicate a post to them. For now though, here is one of my winning hands.

Dinner on January 1st was tai no shioyaki (salt-grilled sea bream) and crab salad (3 days of seafood- I was in heaven!). It is served whole at the table (two, actually) and cut up by the men. This is what the meat looks like:

It is soft enough to cut with chopsticks, but has a firm meaty quality. The flavour of the white meat is delicate, while the meat from around the head, fins and tail is a bit chewier and a bit kobashii (a deep charred or smoky flavour). I love this stuff and wish I could eat it more than once a year.

That night, I didn't dream of Mt. Fuji and I don't think anyone else did either: in the wee hours of the morning Hideaki drove my father-in-law to the hospital. It turned out to be an obstructed bowel, but we didn't find that out until later on that day as the emergency doctor at the first hospital couldn't figure out what was wrong and sent him home (not uncommon in Japan, where 24-hour emergency care barely exists). Luckily he was admitted to another hospital, and we were relieved to learn the problem is not so serious. He'll be in hospital for about 10 days though, which kind of put a damper on the holiday celebrations.

On the last day we let my mother-in-law relax, fixing a bit of food for ourselves and eating dinner out. Although we had to return to Tokyo on January 2nd, Atsuko and Marya will be staying on another week, so it will be nice for my mother-in-law to have some company.

And that's how we spent New Years. It's not quite finished, with hatsumode (first prayer of the year) yet to be completed, nanakusagayu (7-herb porridge) to be eaten, and kagami biraki (the breaking of the kagami mochi) to be performed. But the main events are over.

Here are a few more pictures from the holidays, and some from last year's Oshogatsu and the year's before.

Comments

[Andy]

Damn! What a post! What photography! What insight. You are SERIOUSLY pouring it on! Unreal! Congratulations!

[Lea]

This was an incredible post!!!! I am craving all sorts of fish now that I've never tried and probably could never find here!!!! The liquid from that crab is fascinating!

Sounds like you had an excellent New Years!

[Kat]

Your New Years sounded wonderful!

[joy]

Gorgeous blog! I've been browsing various Japan-themed blogs this evening and yours is the definite highlight. I'm envious of your New Year feast -- I think I made do with a can or so of chu-hi and some sushi from the 7-11. :)

[Mariko]

Happy New Year! It all looks totally delicious. I didn't have any mochi this year, and it makes me sad, because I could eat mochi every single day! And here's a coincidence--my brother's name is Hisashi.

[Amy]

Thank you! I hope you all have a delicious year.

[erizabesu]

Akemashite omedetou! Been following your blog. The pictures are even more awesome! What a spread you had for oshogatsu. Have a great year :)

e

[carlyn]

Amy;
Wonderful food and great company..photos are great and the food looks wonderful.

[Amy]

Thank you Carlyn and Erizabesu. It was great food and even better company, and although it's always a relief to return to my own, familiar home, this time I really wished we could have stayed longer.
Happy New Year to you!