Oshogatsu, or New Year, is the most important holiday in Japan. Businesses shut down from January 1 to January 3, and families gather to spend time together. The New Year Lottery...[ Click to read more ]
New Year is the main holiday of the year in Japan, and the country shuts down for several days as people take time off to spend time with their families...[ Click to read more ]
Celebrating New Year in Japan is all about 'firsts.' Perhaps the most important ‘first’ is the first trip to a shrine, a tradition called hatsumode. While this can be done...[ Click to read more ]
Japan only started celebrating the New Year on January 1st in 1873, when it adopted the West's Gregorian calendar. Traditionally, the Japanese New Year was set to the Chinese calendar....[ Click to read more ]
Forgetting the fact that Japan somehow now has a Black Friday manufactured shopping holiday in the middle of November, the traditional shopper's marathon is the first three days of the...[ Click to read more ]
People say Tokyo is the most restless city in the world, but maybe they've never been here around the traditional New Year holiday period when most residents aren't punching the...[ Click to read more ]
There are two main events or traditions marking the beginning of the new year in Japan. Auspiciously, the first visit of the year to the shrine called Hatsumode, and followed...[ Click to read more ]
Osechi-ryōri are traditional Japanese foods eaten at the start of the new year. The osechi tradition has been alive in Japan since the Heian Era (starting in 794), and the...[ Click to read more ]
New Year is an important time in Japan, but things are celebrated a little differently here then they are back home. You are no doubt already clued up on Japan's...[ Click to read more ]
The New Year is traditionally a time when people decide to put their culinary over-indulgences behind them and start a healthy diet. Thankfully for expats living in Japan, the country...[ Click to read more ]