Japanese New Year Day

Japanese New Year Day is similar to Christmas in the west. Most Japanese return to their hometowns and eat delicious dishes known as Osechi. The Osechi was first founded during the Heian period in Japan. Most people ate these dishes over a couple of days which meant that the food had to last. Thus, the food was stacked in boxes called jubako.

I have never eaten Osechi in Japan but I will eventually. Unlike most Japanese housewives I do not have days to prepare this glorious dish nor do I want to spend hundreds of dollars to purchase it. So, this year I decided to walk around my local area and eat Japanese Yakiniku and do Hatsumode (Praying for good luck for the year.)

Living in Shinjuku the closest shrine to my house is Hanazono Shrine located next to Kabukicho (Tokyo`s red light district)

 I left my house at around 3pm and headed to the shrine with my friend and on the way I decided to sample some delicious street stall foods in Shinokubo. I decided to eat a potato fried on a stick. It was quite delicious and cheap at only 200 yen.

After eating the potato I headed to the Shrine. But do the the amount of people waiting in to pray I decided against waiting and went shopping instead. I ended up buying my new oven then headed back to the Shrine to pray for good luck. Again the line was super long thus I decided to go to Hanazono Sweet Shop and enjoy some Japanese sweets and wait until dusk. 

This sweet is a soft rice cake with cream and raisins in the middle. It tasted like a raisin cookie not too sweet but very delicious. 

This is sugar candy that is often given with warm green tea in Japan.

This is a special Anmitsu only served on New Year Day. Anmitsu has many thing such as jelly, azuki (Japanese sweet beans), cherry and fruit. This particular one had green tea ice cream. 

This is fried mochi(mashed rice until it become a dough like substance) with seaweed and soy sauce.