In this video I'm gonna show you what a New Year's holiday is like
in the home of a Japanese family.
During the New Year's holiday
Japanese families usually gather and spend time together,
just like the Christmas holidays in Western countries.
So for this New Year's holiday,
Maiko and I decided to spend time with her family.
So we're in Maiko's hometown, Aichi,
which is about three hours south of Tokyo.
And this house behind me is the house that she actually grew up in.
And since I'm already here for the holidays,
I want to take this opportunity
to show you guys what it's like inside their home,
how they spend the Japanese holidays,
what they eat, what they do,
hopefully we make it to the shrine,
and maybe a little bit of the house itself
And today is December 31st — New Year's Eve day.
It's about 10 o'clock right now,
but let's start this video in the morning.
All right, that feels a little bit better.
I got my coffee now. It's still 7:30. Everyone is still asleep.
So I just got to wait for everyone to wake up now.
I'll check some email.
What time did you go to sleep last night?
- 2 a.m. - 2 a.m.?
-I fell asleep here a little.
-Here?
-I fell asleep, watched more TV, and fell back asleep.
-How about Maiko?
-I think Maiko slept at around 12:30
We're actually in her old brother's room right now.
I don't know if you guys can see this.
Maiko is still in the bed. She had a long night.
Time to take a shower
Not a lot of stuff is happening this morning.
Dad went back to sleep.
Maiko's mom is in the kitchen.
Maiko's over there doing her makeup.
Let me just show you around the house while we have some time
because we're not really doing so much what right now.
I guess this is part of the day; not a lot happens.
So this is a typical house in Aichi countryside.
Two stories, three bedrooms, living, dining, and kitchen,
and even a cool Tatami room with a personal shrine.
This right behind me is their backyard.
as you can see, it's actually quite bigger than you would expect,
especially when comparing it to Tokyo
There's Koko.
At the front of the house, there is usually a family name tag like this,
and this laced-rope-like decoration is called Shimenawa.
It's a special decoration for the new year.
It's supposed to exorcise bad fortunes.
In Maiko's parents' house it's everywhere.
In the kitchen, bathroom, etc.
And at the main entrance, there's a Shochikubai Banzai,
which is also a New Year's decoration.
Shochikubai means pine, bamboo, and plum tree.
Pine and bamboo stay green all year round
and plum trees bloom beautifully in winter,
so it symbolizes remaining faithful and a healthy long life.
This is the kitchen
It has got a typical stainless sink, built-in gas stove
with three burners, and a small fish grill.
Dishwasher, family-size refrigerator,
microwave oven, rice cooker, and a toaster.
This is the Kamidana, the Shinto altar.
The miniature shrine can be found in many Japanese households,
shops, and sometimes offices for daily worship.
Since it's a New Year's, Shimenawa and Sake are added as offerings.
Maiko's dad placed a big jumbo lottery ticket here.
How cool would that be if they won?
This is the second-floor toilet
It's actually quite interesting
the way they save water and space at once.
I really want to show you.
This is Maiko's sister's room right here.
And this is the toilet right here.
And you can see there's actually not a lot of space.
Let's open this door.
So you can see, right behind me, this is the entire toilet / bathroom space.
Right here is the door, and here's the toilet.
So if you were to sit down in this,
my knees are pretty much hitting the door.
But this is common for a secondary toilet in Japan.
The main downstairs toilet is much larger
and has a separate sink area.
I just wanted to show you how space-efficient homes are in Japan.
But what's interesting about this toilet is that
(you've probably seen in my other video)
the actual sink is built into the toilet,
So what happens is: when you flush the toilet,
the water comes down into here.
You can wash your hands,
and then that water is used to fill up the toilet.
It's actually a pretty cool way to save water,
and it also saves space because there's actually
not a lot of room to put another sink in here.
Obviously, it has this bidet control,
so you have all of that functionality.
It has a seat warmer.
One thing you find on a Japanese home is that
people love to watch TV and just sit around all day,
especially on days like this when no one has work,
and they just sit around and watch TV.
Japanese TV is probably the most interesting
during the New Year's holiday
because they know people are gonna be sitting at home
doing nothing, relaxing and having a good time with the family.
So the program is actually pretty good.
The one time that I do watch Japanese TV is this time
because they have really interesting programming.
-Make-up done now? -Yep.
-How are you feeling?
-I'm good. Just nothing really to do
on New Year's Day, just watching TV.
-Where are you going right now?
-I'm going to Kyoto.
-You are not going to spend time with us?
-No, sorry.
-Your shoes are huge.
-They are Dr. Martin.
So Maiko's younger sister needs to be dropped off at the station.
She's actually spending New Year's with her friends in Kyoto.
There goes one family member.
-Have a nice trip!
-Have a nice New Year!
So we just dropped her off at the train station,
and now we're going to the supermarket to pick up some food.
It's actually quite late,
so I think we might just have lunch there or somewhere.
Not very traditional in my eyes,
but apparently, Maiko says that,
Japanese people don't celebrate lunch on New Year's.
-Right? -Mhm.
-You don't celebrate it? -Nope.
Because there's nothing to celebrate for lunch.
This place is just so busy right now.
Hopefully we can have the shopping done with real quickly,
and then go back home.
The supermarket is filled with people.
In fact, I've been to this market before,
but it was never anything like this.
So we've been waiting in line forever.
The lines are so long on New Year's Day.
Reminder to get your stuff before New Year's Day,
otherwise, you'll be waiting in a long line.
There are so many people.
All that wait for a self-checkout line to scan your items, pay, and go.
Is it this convenient in your country?
-So what is your family doing now that we got back from the supermarket?
-We're just gonna relax for a little bit,
and I think we're gonna start cooking.
We means my mom.
Well, we already have a lot of stuff cooked,
and in my family we don't start drinking early or anything.
So one thing I learned about the supermarket just now:
I actually offered, told Maiko that we should pay for the groceries,
but Maiko told me that that if we did, it would be very rude (not nice) to pay for the groceries
because we are the guests in the house.
Even though I wanted to help out,
I guess you really aren't supposed to help out in this situation.
-Helping out is like helping out poor people.
-Your parents are not poor.
-I know, but if you're offering the support in a financial
that means you are showing that
"Oh I'm making more money than you guys."
-It's weird because I think that, in my family,
if I were to come home and help pay for groceries,
they would actually be happy.
-That's your parents.
You are paying back for raising you.
-But you could have paid with your credit card.
-If I was, it's okay.
Don't you think it's rude if I go there and like,
"it's okay, I got it."
-I think they'd be happy.
-Really? -Yeah.
I think it's culturally like... yeah.
-It's omotenashi culture.
-I think in my culture its easier to accept...
like if someone has more money than you,
it's not like, "oh they're better than me"
you're just like, "oh, okay, cool."
"Thank you, I appreciate it."
-Well, I guess it's different in Japanese culture.
-How about you guys? What's your culture like?
Is it okay to pay? Is it not?
I'm not quite sure. Let me know in the comments.
So here's the problem today.
Since I woke up so early, I'm gonna be super tired,
so I'm trying to figure out when to take a nap.
We're supposed to have dinner at around 6 - 6:45 pm,
and we leave here at 11:30 pm.
So maybe after dinner I'll go and take a nap.
But the problem with that is,
you don't want to take a nap right after you eat, right?
Anyways, it's about 2:30 pm right now. Dad's out.
We just got back from shopping.
Erisa, Maiko's sister, is gone for the rest of the trip,
and it's just us four.
When you think about during the Christmas holiday,
it's like family, everyone comes home,
and you're supposed to have a reconnection of people getting together.
But this time around it's like...
brother is gone, Maiko's sister is gone,
and it's just us four, but I guess that happens.
In a lot of families not everyone comes home
or everyone starts getting older, and they have different plans.
So anyways, we'll just continue on.
Maiko is just turning the TV on and watching TV now.
This is like a constant theme, probably for this video.
So as you can see behind me,
they're just sitting back having some coffee, some donuts.
It's not a very Japanese thing.
But Krispy Kreme is now around in Japan,
so what else do you guys expect?
I can't make them do more traditional stuff.
I was hoping they would do more traditional stuff,
but they're not; they're just...
-Sorry.
Koko-chan!
-I just cut this and make it break.
The final meal is prepared; you can see behind me.
Happy New Years guys.
We're about to have our final meal of the year.
So this is what we're having for New Year's dinner.
What goes on the table really depends on the family
and where you live.
Maiko's family dinner is based on traditions in Nagano Prefecture
where her dad is from.
So I'm quite interested in the menu.
You have Toshitori-zakana, which is grilled yellowtail,
burdock, pickled octopus, marinated herring roe,
Namasu, marinated bean curd,
Chikuzenni, which is a broiled vegetable and chicken,
and lots of Sashimi.
Since Nagano is an inland prefecture,
seafood used to be considered a luxury food.
And so nowadays it's a must-have on the menu
to celebrate the New Year.
And my favorite is the Chawanmushi.
It's kind of like a hot, steamy egg pudding.
They're watching TV again.
Japanese people just love watching TV.
Now we're gonna do Hatsumode.
It's about 12:40 pm right now,
and instead of going out to the city center
and go party and drinking and celebrate the countdown,
people actually go to the shrine.
I can't believe the family will get together.
It's already late.
I don't know if you can see my face. I'm super tired.
I actually fell asleep a little bit.
I'm excited. I've actually never been to Hatsumode.
I've done it after the New Year's,
but I've never actually gone to the shrine at midnight.
Ever.
As long as I've been in Japan.
Matsumoto is known as the first shrine visit of the year.
Maiko's family goes at midnight.
So we left the house about 15 minutes before the New Year.
Its standard to go to the family's local god's shrine,
which is usually the closest one,
but it's also okay to visit other shrines
or more than one for Hatsumode.
Oh wow, there's a huge fire-burning.
There's just something magical about being at a shrine at midnight
to welcome in the New Year.
If you guys ask me what to do for the New Year's in Japan,
I suggest trying this at least once
as this is so much different than any New Year's I have ever spent.
After praying at the main altar and the ones on the side,
it's time to check out the [?]
which is food offered by the shrine during Hatsumode.
So the shrine was offering Oshiruko,
red bean soup with mochi balls.
I've known shrines to give away sacred alcohol
called Omiki and Amazake.
All right, Happy New Year's guys, it's officially 2019.
What's really nice too is, they hand out soup to everyone.
So let's go get some soup.
It has little balls of mochi.
So this is called Shitako, apparently.
It's a red bean soup.
I thought it was gonna be like a miso, but it's red beans.
-So why red beans?
-Why red beans?
I don't know.
I guess they don't know.
At this shrine, it appears the tradition is
to gather around the large crackling fire
and greet with neighbors for the New Years
while eating the hot soup.
I definitely love the local vibe here.
All right so we just got back.
And now we're gonna have a little Kampai toast.
This is Toshikoshi Soba.
It's supposed to help celebrate the New Year
and a long, prosperous life.
They have long, thin noodles to symbolize
a long life, a long year, happy year.
Prosperous year.
It's 12:30 right now.
We just got back, and we're still eating.
We're eating all day.
The next morning, January 1st,
people eat Osechi, which is
a traditional Japanese New Year's food
served in this pretty delicate box called Jubako.
I forgot to hit record on the main camera.
So here's my Instagram story.
And don't forget to follow my Instagram account
to see what I'm doing on a daily basis.
Also served is Ozoni soup,
which is completely different in each area.
So again, we're basing it on the Nagano Prefecture customs.
In the Dashi soup uou'll find chicken, Shiitake,
bamboo shoots, ox eye cabbage,
kamaboko fishcake, yam, and — of course — mochi.
All right so that concludes the video.
If you liked it, help me out and hit that like button.
Let me know what you thought about
how the Japanese family spends the holidays.
And let me know in the comments what the difference is between your home and Japan.
And if you want to see more of my adventures in Japan,
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I'll catch you guys in the next one.