December 25, 2011
“Home Alone” Oshogatsu Edition
Top 10 ways to while away the holidays
By Metropolis
Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2011
For the resident gaijin, Japan’s New Year holidays are a time of enforced inactivity. With the nation at a standstill, your foreign friends off in Thailand and your Japanese mates in their hometowns, things can be pretty quiet. In the holiday spirit, we offer ten ways to enliven the downtime.
10. Perform osoji
Osoji translates to “cleaning,” but means so much more. Technically meant to be done in late December, houses are scrubbed spic and span, bills are paid, and obligations discharged, symbolically purifying celebrants in time for the all-important Oshogatsu New Year’s Day. Slip those gloves on and get scrubbing—better late than never!
9. Read Reimagining Japan
[youtube]vpaxseZ3VfA[/youtube]In this book, [reviewed by Metropolis here] 80 of the world’s leading thinkers on all things Japanese postulate ways forward for post-disaster Japan. Among the solutions proposed for the country’s many problems are the usual ones like a more flexible society and increased immigration. On the other hand Ezra Vogel, author of the 1979 classic Japan As Number One, offers the unconventional view that Japan’s aging population is just fine. As the Harvard professor says: “I’m 80 and I’m still doing a few things.”
8. Listen to Lost in Wonder
[youtube]-ogm5Rm7g5w[/youtube]Alternative rock icon Aiha Higurashi (ex Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her) once again pulls a rabbit out of the hat, delivering the most hummable, foot-tapping album of 2011. Teaming up with Naoko Okamoto of Tsubaki and bassist Tabasa Hayashi of Scarlet, Higurashi is back in riot grrrl mode with her new band The Girl [Metropolis article here]. It suits her well: the simple, stripped-down flavor of the music is the ideal backdrop for her lilting melodies and incisive vocals.
7. Play Xenoblade Chronicles
[youtube]_G_EuCVdcag[/youtube]The new Wii role-playing game is generating a perfect storm of rave reviews, with Nintendo World Report calling Xenoblade Chronicles “the best RPG this generation.” Take hold of an ancient sword that offers glimpses of the future, customize your characters for over 450 quests and enter a world where relationships really do matter.
6. Watch We Don’t Care About Music Anyway and Live from Tokyo
[youtube]hHYYWhhFpzA[/youtube]Who knew that 2010 would provide not one, but two feature-length documentaries about the febrile Tokyo music scene? The first looks at grizzled avant-garde noiseniks such as guitarist Yoshihide Otomo and cellist Hiromichi Sakamoto, while the second is just barely more mainstream, featuring hip young people like neo-folkie Shugo Tokumaru and husband-wife duo Tenniscoats. Too bad the trendiness of the Japanese underground doesn’t translate to concert ticket sales.
5. Check out Neojaponisme
On his blog, critic David Marx offers some of the most thoughtful, timely theorizing on Japanese culture since Donald Richie, but his long-form essays require some downtime to digest fully. Recommended are Neojaponisme’s multi-part studies of Japan’s music and sex industries, as well as his brand-new long-form project documenting the seizure of Japanese culture by otaku, yankii and gyaru, The Great Shift in Japanese Pop Culture.
4. Rent Kiseki
[youtube]lR-fMHFLHKc[/youtube]Financed by JR to celebrate the shinkansen’s extension throughout Kyushu, this children’s vehicle had all the makings of a schmaltz-fest. But in director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s hands, Kiseki blossoms into a compelling tale. Serious ten-year-old Koichi lives with his mother in Kagoshima while younger brother, the playful Ryo, resides with dad in Fukuoka. The brothers often chat via cellphone, wish their parents would reunite, and plot a “miracle” to make it happen. Kore-eda works many angles on children’s dreams while contrasting them with the adult world, and it’s not often clear who is taking care of whom. Sweet but not saccharine, Kiseki (“I Wish”) is another must-see from Japan’s genius auteur. Robert Schwartz
3. View Zen-Nihon Kaso Taisho
[youtube]-dcmDscwEcI[/youtube]Hosted by TV personality Kinchan and SMAP’s Katori Shingo, the “All-Japan Disguise Awards” is a fixture of New Year’s television. Amateurs devise zany sketches, which are then judged by a panel of celebrities. The 2003 winner Matrix Ping-Pong has been seen more than 15 million times on YouTube, and despite being an amateur contest, “Zen-Nihon Kaso Taisho” has launched thriving careers. 1989 winner Yusei Uesugi took his ¥1-million prize for impersonating a giant beetle and went to Hollywood, where he became a successful FX artist for George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic.
2. Eat toshikoshi soba
Omisoka, or New Year’s Eve, is traditionally marked at home with a steaming bowl of toshikoshi or year-end soba, which symbolizes longevity. There is no one recipe but we like ours with yuzu kosho, a fermented paste made from yuzu citrus peel and pepper. Follow it up with a customary glass of icky sweet amazake at your local shrine.
1. Watch Uta Gassen
[youtube]3cYZ1Vd9s2c[/youtube]Sure, the annual Kohaku show in Japan is one of the most awful things you will ever see: it’s cheesy, the music is hideous and the high-budget props used for the show make Ultraman look classy. On the other hand, NHK’s pop extravaganza is an event that has parallels with the final of a Simon Cowell talent show: put simply, everybody watches it. And this means the perfect chance to people-watch if you can spend time with a Japanese family. Now into my third year of watching the “Red and White Song Battle,” it is admittedly getting more painful, but it has also taught me the way Japanese people watch television, which is with indifference. Basically, Kohaku remains in the background while the alcohol flows, but is mentioned at the more dramatic or awful moments. The rest of the time, just enjoy the conversation and good company. Bone up on the contenders in the 62nd edition with NHK’s new Kohaku iApp, and enjoy the bizarre contrast as, at the stroke of midnight, the glitz gives way to the sober sounds of bells tolling at shrines across the nation. Richard Smart
And the worst…
And here’s perhaps the vilest possible way to spend your Oshogatsu holidays. AKBaby is a fresh service that allows you to visualize what it would be like to procreate with one of the comely underage AKB48 idols. Simply sign up with the new AKB48 Official Net broadband internet provider. Subscribers can access premium content, such as the AKBaby service in which fans can receive an image that blends their face with that of their favorite AKB girl, allowing them to fantasize what their baby might look like. Seldom has wish fulfillment been so easy.
