On January 7th, we ate nanakusa-gayu at home. Nanakusa literally means “seven grasses” and “gayu” (kayu, o-kayu) means “porridge.” So basically we ate veggie gruel to mark the official end of the Japanese New Year’s holiday season.
The custom is said to come from China in the early 3rd or 4th century CE. Like many food- and drink-related customs, this one is supposed to bring good health to those who eat it.
As I wrote a couple days ago, I’ve been spending the New Year’s holidays with my wife’s family in Kagoshima for a decade now. In that span of time, there have been five children born into the immediate extended family, which includes our own, my wife’s sister, and my wife’s cousin on her mother’s side. Her cousin got married right after we did, and her brother also got married recently. I’m from a large family (= 9 siblings, a dozen plus aunts and uncles, forests of cousins) so I have many memories of huge family gatherings. After the first couple of somewhat quiet holiday dinners, however, the last few years have seemed extraordinarily hectic and noisy.
Given the talents and histories of my wife’s family, the more people have just made things much more interesting, especially for my kids.
After a series of fairly serious blog posts related to an ongoing complaint against Amazon (which was somewhat, but not entirely, resolved), I thought it was about time to post about a slightly more innocuous topic: Making pottery at the local nursery school.
But then reality set in, and between work and family obligations I had practically no time to write anything longer than a tweet. No updates even to the Facebook page (aside from the fact that I’ve been waffling between self-publishing and going with a UK-based publisher of mostly TESOL-related text books).
And now, the holidays. It’s time to relax. You’d like to think…
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The Japan Times Mainichi Shimbun
Taking Leave 