How Japanese People Spend the Year-End 年末の過ごし方｜Japanese Podcast #35

Hello everyone! Thank you for coming to the Japanese Podcast with Hanae. This podcast is for those who are studying Japanese. I talk about Japanese culture, news, and my personal experiences in Japanese. How are you all doing? Today's topic is how to spend the end of the year in Japan. We usually talk about the end of the year, New Year's Day, New Year's Day, and New Year's Day together. But it's going to be long, so I'm going to split it into two parts, New Year's Day, New Year's Day, and New Year's Day. I'm going to talk about part 1 and part 2. So if you listen to the two videos together, you will be able to understand more about the traditional culture of the end of the year in Japan. So, at the end of the year, what do you do when the end of the year approaches? And what do you do on December 31st? What do you eat? I'll talk about that. First of all, Christmas may be a day for many people to spend time with their family. I talked about that in the Christmas episode, but did you hear that? So, in Japan, is there a day to spend time with your family, such as Shukujitsu? That's not true. I think many Japanese people spend New Year's Day, New Year's Day, and New Year's Day with their family at the beginning of the year. I think many people spend New Year's Day, New Year's Day, New Year's Day, and New Year's Day with their family at the beginning of the year, which is a general tradition. So, I think many people go home to their parents' house, gather their relatives once, and spend the first day of the year. And there's a phrase that I've been saying since Christmas. It's a greeting called Yoi Otoshio. This is a phrase for people who meet at the end of the year, hoping that the next year will be a good year. So, when you go home to your colleagues or your boss on the last day of the year, you don't say thank you for your hard work, you say Yoi Otoshio. I think it conveys a warm feeling of thinking about each other more. Not only at work, but also when you check out at a friend's house, a restaurant, or a hotel, it makes you feel very warm and makes you smile. I think it's a way of saying thank you for saying that, Yoi Otoshio. So, from around Christmas, around December 26th to the 31st, if you meet Japanese people during this time, or if you come to Japan, please use it. So, what do you do at the end of the year? The first thing that comes to mind is cleaning. But it's not just cleaning the house, or tidying up the desk, it's really moving all the furniture from the corner of the house to the corner of the house, and cleaning the dust on the edge, and cleaning the windows, and all the things that you don't usually do. That's cleaning. The reason why it's common to end the year like this is because the most important day of the year, New Year's Eve, to welcome the beginning of the year with a clean, fresh feeling, we clean the inside of the house to welcome the beginning of the new year, and we welcome the new year with a clean body, mind, and appearance of the house. To do that, we clean the house once before the end of December. This is not something you have to do on December 31st, but it's like cleaning the house once before January 1st to make it clean. And then, at the end of the year, on December 31st, there is something to eat. It's soba. There is something called Toshikoshi soba. Japanese people eat it on December 31st. So why do we eat Toshikoshi soba at the end of the year? It's because soba stretches thinner than other noodles. So there is a theory that you can eat it with the hope that you can live longer or that you can live longer from that stretch. Compared to other types of noodles, soba is easier to cut. Soba is easier to cut, so you can cut off all the bad things that happened to you in the past year and you don't have to bring them up again next year. That's why people eat soba to welcome the new year, and to put an end to all the bad things that happened in the past year. There are many theories about this, but it is said that people started to eat Toshikoshi soba for this reason. There is no strict time when you have to eat soba, such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so you can eat it anytime on December 31st. You can eat it before January 1st, before 12 o'clock. Many people, including me, often eat it for dinner or as a late-night snack after dinner. And next, I'm going to introduce you to the preparations for the new year. One is to make Osechi food, and the other is to write a New Year's card and send it. First of all, Osechi food is a variety of ingredients, a variety of dishes, packed in a box called a juubako. Osechi food is a dish with a lot of ingredients that means that you will be able to live safely without illness, without accidents, and without accidents for a year. I'll put a picture on it, so if you don't know what it is, it's like this. And in the past, I think there were a lot of people who made all of this by hand from scratch. Those people cook the day before, start preparing, and prepare so that they can eat it for breakfast on January 1st. Recently, various shops are selling Osechi food, so I think there are fewer people who make it themselves. It takes a lot of time and effort, so I think there are a lot of people who don't have that much time. Recently, I think there are a lot of people who buy it if they want to eat it. And Osechi food is relatively expensive, so if it's really expensive, I think it costs 30,000 to 40,000 yen for three or four people. I think it's about 10,000 to 20,000 yen on average. You can prepare it the day before, or you can buy it and eat it the next day. And the next one is Nengajo. Nengajo is a letter that you write on a piece of paper saying, Happy New Year, and then you write a message saying, Thank you for taking care of me for a year, and I look forward to working with you in the future. I want to send this to my partner's house on January 1st, so in the second half of December, people who write Nengajo will prepare this. In the past, it was like a traditional thing that everyone was doing, but I don't think there are many people who do it recently. When I was in elementary school, I did it until I was in middle school, but I stopped sending it to my friends when I was in high school. It's not something you can do for free, so if you have a lot of acquaintances, you can send it to hundreds of people, or you can send it to your colleagues at work. I don't think it's cheap at all. Also, it took a lot of time and effort, so I don't think there are many people who don't do it anymore. Also, I think there are some people who make a digital version of the image and send it to the other person via LINE or e-mail. I've never done that, so I don't know, but there are a lot of tools that can save time, so I think there are people who do that. Next, I have a music program on December 31st, and it's very famous, so I'd like to introduce it and finish it. The program is called Kouhaku Utagassen. This is a singing program with a lot of singers who have been active for a year, or singers who have been legendary for a long time. It's a singing program with a lot of people. I think there are some people who watch this and end the year. The Japanese are the main, but K-pop idols have also appeared recently. The artists who appear there perform one song or several songs, and there are various stages such as collaboration stages. It's a program that really ends the year. This is on December 31st at night, and I think I've been doing it for about 4 hours. I think there are a lot of people who watch this at home and think that this year is over and that this song was really popular this year. I think there are a lot of people who watch such TV while relaxing at home. There are several programs that end the year, such as December 30th and 31st at the end of the year, but I think this Kouhaku Utagassen is probably the most famous, and I think Japanese people have definitely seen it once. I don't absolutely watch this, but when I'm at home relaxing and thinking about watching TV, I sometimes watch this. I also watch only the parts with my favorite singers. This time I talked about how to spend the end of the year. Many people spend the end of the year with their families, and I think some people go home or travel with their families, but I think spending time with your family is the main thing. At the end of the year, there are many customs such as eating soba noodles, but I think there are also customs that are fading away. How do you spend the end of the year? Or how did you spend it? If you have any plans or memories, please let me know in the comments. And finally, an announcement. I'm doing a membership on YouTube and Patreon. If you join, you will be able to see transcripts of all videos. Even if you don't need a transcript, if there are people who can support this activity even a little, please join. And this video will be the last video in 2024. This year, in July of 2024, I posted my first video. Thank you so much for listening to so many people so far. I can only say thank you. I will continue to post videos in 2025, so please continue to support me. That's it for this time. Thank you for listening to me until the end. Have a happy new year, everyone!