Mascots 2.0

Kakizome is an event where the first calligraphy of the year is written with a brush, while facing an auspicious direction, and is usually held on January 2nd. Japanese people write their New Year's resolution, or a Chinese character that makes them feel happy, such as “dream,”“hope” and so on.

Mochitsuki

Rice cake with sweet bean paste and Kinako(powder soybean)

During sanganichi, many companies and schools have holidays. However, department stores and shops are usually open and crowded with customers because of the first sales of the year, hatsu-uri.

Hanetsuki, played by young girls at New Year, resembles badminton. A wooden racket called a hagoita(battledore), on which is painted a beautiful picture, is used to hit a shuttlecock--a small, rounded piece with feathers attached--back and forth. Featuring cloth-embroidered human portraits, some battledores are also popular as beautiful ornaments. The shuttlecock game is played in formal attires, and there is also a rule that one who fails to hit it must have the face marked with India ink by a stroke of a brush. The kimono-clad girl enjoying the shuttlecock game was formerly a part of New Year's scenery. But in recent years one hardly sees this anymore, because places to play have sharply decreased as urbanization has advanced and children's style of playing games has changed with the changing times.

January 7th － nanakusa-gayu, eating porridge with seven herbs

People eat rice porridge prepared with the seven herbs of spring. They wish for good health throughout the year and, having previously eaten too much osechi and too many rice cakes, give their stomach a rest at the same time.

January 11th － kagamiwari, putting away the decorated rice cakes

People are definitely getting out of the mood of oshogatsu by mid-January. They take down the round rice cakes used for New Year's displays and eat them, typically dipping them in sweet aduki bean soup or something similar. (Actually, the rice cake has often already gone moldy by this time.)

Dondo-Yaki Bonfire

(Burning of New Year's gate decorations )