Inside a Typical Japanese New Year with a Tokyo Family! (Part 1)

Today, we're stepping into a side of Japan that almost no visitor ever gets a chance to see. Oh, that's actually very heavy. I don't know if I have the muscle power for this. A real Tokyo family has invited us into their home for an exclusive look into the customs and traditions of a Japanese family in Japan. And some of it may not be quite what you expect because in Japan, New Year's is very much a family and community celebration. There are rituals that are held only once a year, decorations and foods that each have their own special and hidden meaning, and traditions that have been passed down for generations. So today, I'm going to be showing you some of the preparations that are needed leading up to New Year's and what happens on New Year's Day itself. But before we go, don't forget to subscribe for more Japan adventures like this one. And don't forget to check out buyfood.com to book a restaurant or food tour next time you're in Japan. Alright, let's go meet our family. Come on! Oh, we're here! Hi! Hello! Thanks for having us! Welcome! Thank you! Thank you for having us! Hi! So everyone, I'd like to introduce Kaoru-san. Kaoru is actually the CEO of BuyFood, which is the company that is behind this channel, Japan BuyFood. We actually have a female CEO, which I think is really cool. This is the first time she's so happy in the camera for me. That's so true! I'm always behind. This is the big reveal. She's behind BuyFood. So thank you for having us. Can you tell us a little bit about what we're going to be doing today to prepare for New Year's? We do three things. One is the mochi, pounding mochi, and then decorations, the New Year decorations, and then cooking the osechi. Everything has a meaning. Right. And then I will join you for New Year's Day. So we go to Hatsumode in the shrine to pray for the New Year. Oh, okay! Are you going to come too? Yeah! And then enjoy lunch together? Yeah, osechi lunch together. That's great. That's the good part, right? Great! Well, thank you for having us along, and I hope you guys are excited. So what are we going to start with today? Mochitsuki. Oh my gosh! This is more than 200 years old. Really? Yeah, all of it. This is 200 years old? Yeah, and the estimated weight is 200 or 300 kilograms. Really? It's so heavy. How did you bring it here? Rolling, rolling, rolling. You rolled it here? That's amazing! This is the mochi rice. So, I will show you. I put the water for more than 10 hours. And then, since yesterday. Wow, 10 hours you have to soak it. Yeah, 10 hours. And then we're going to steam it for around 40 minutes. This looks heavy. Are you okay? This is 5 kilos. 5 kilos? Okay, I'll help you with the door. Yeah, let's go inside. Okay, let's go inside. Hi, welcome. Oh, thank you. Alright, going inside a Japanese home. Yeah. I don't even know. We don't do this very much on this channel, so. Alright, let's go inside. First, we're going to steam the mochi. Okay. Mochi rice. The mochi rice. Oh my gosh. It's here. Okay, do you need some help? Yeah. Not that many families have this, I think, right? But this is like a traditional style. Okay. This is our style. Okay, that's great. I'm really happy to see that. Because my Japanese family does not have this. And there's no, we don't do any mochitsuki at our house. Yeah, recently, most of the young people don't do like that. Oh, but I'm glad that you still have this tradition in your family for so long. We're going to cover over here. Oh, that is really cool. So while the rice is steaming, what should we do next to prepare for New Year's Day? So cook for the osechi. Okay. So osechi has many ingredients inside, so the preparation process is quite long. I already cooked some part, but I need help to the final process. So let's do it together. Oh, I'm excited. Thank you. And just so everyone knows, the cooking process is very long. So most families will cook it a few days before New Year's Day. The osechi is quite huge because we eat that osechi next three days for the New Year. Really? And then we can do relax with the family, right? So this is what we mean. Right, so you eat it for three days. Oh, I think my osechi never lasts that long. Hi. Oh, this is beautiful. So this is the second kitchen. Yeah. This looks so great. So it looks kind of like a cooking class. Thank you for setting it up like this. I'm so amateur. No, what are you talking about? This is the most beautiful setup. So this is the osechi box, right? Can I open it and see what's inside? Ta-da. Oh my goodness. You made this? Yeah, me and my mother made it. Wow, and there's the second layer. This is stunning. Not only does it look so delicious, the presentation is immaculate. It's so perfect. So everything has a meaning. For example, this one, king-un. It increases your wealth. Like, you can be more rich. This is tazukuri, small fish. And then cook with the soy sauce and then sugar. And this one means to pray for the harvest. Harvest. Okay, so good harvest. And then there's some missing. Oh, yes. Yeah, so we're gonna put this one. Kuromame, black beans. Black beans. Yeah, so we pray the health and then do hard work. So it's like a play on words. Because mame means beans, but it also means like a hardworking person. So I'm gonna help you put the beans in. All right. And then put the gold. Gold leaf. Oh, very fancy. For a celebration. This is my first time dusting gold on anything. And it feels really exciting. I feel like it's the new year. Yeah. This is the kamaboko. Fish cake. Okay. So we're gonna cut the fish cake and then make the decorations. So now, now that we have this shape, what should we do next? So right side in the middle. Okay. Then another one put inside from the back. The back. And you fold it in like this. It's actually more difficult than it looks. It's really bouncy. So the pieces keep falling out again. Okay. Now, mine is completed. Oh, you have to pull it out. Yes. It looks so pretty. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks for teaching me how to do this. I've never, so I eat kamaboko every new year. I really enjoy it, but I've never done this decoration before. So now I have something I can do to add to my own new year's lunch this year. Yay, I'm so excited. Okay. So the mochi rice is now steamed? Yes. We finished the 40 minutes. No, we do one hour. Oh, we did an hour? Yeah. Oops, okay. So it's very steamed. Should we do a reveal? Yeah, open it. Look at all that steam. And then, mochi. Oh, it's so steamy. I'm getting like a facial right now. There's so much steam coming. I could use this for a facial. And this is a special type of rice, right? This is not our normal rice in Japan. Only used for mochi. Yeah. Mochigome. Mochi rice. So it's a specific rice that's a lot chewier. Even when you eat it like this, it's chewy, I think. Yeah. And then when you pound it, it gets even chewier. Then makes mochi. Then it's mochi. That's what we call mochi mochi. Yeah. It's very chewy. Okay, so we're about to do the mochi pounding, called mochitsuki. And as you can see, everybody has gathered to help us out today. These are some of Kaoru's friends and also some members of the community association around this area. And I'm also wearing something called a happi, as some of us are wearing today. It's actually a special outfit you wear for festivals and special occasions in Japan. So it's very official, I'd say, today. It's very official, isn't it? Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to working with you all today. It's starting. Oh, the rice is in the pot. So before pounding it, he's lightly squishing it down so the rice doesn't fly everywhere. A lot of times during the mochitsuki, they'll say something like yoisha, which means, it's just kind of a sound of effort. So it gives encouragement to the people who are going to pound it. Oh, it's your turn. Oh, can you even do it? Oh, oh, it's actually, it's very hot. Okay, imagine like you just made like a steamed barbecue pork bun. Like it comes straight out of the steamer. That's kind of what it feels like. It also feels really smooth already, which is amazing. Oh, yoisha! Yoisha! Looks so good. Look at this. Oh, should I try? Yeah. You look so tired, like you're out of breath. Oh, you look like you're out of breath. That's actually very heavy. I don't know if I have the muscle power for this. Oh, you can do it! Yoi, yoi! Yoisha! Yoi, yoi! Yoisha! Yoi, yoi! Yoisha! Yoi, yoi! Yay! Actually, though, very tired. What's actually, my hands are actually really tired. Surprisingly. But that was really fun. Let's see, let's leave it to the pro. He's the mochi prince right here. Right? Mochitsuki Prince is what Kagami-san calls him. Yeah. The Prince of Mochitsuki. We're gonna make Kagami-mochi. Okay. So juicy. It's very stretchy. Yeah. So this is a New Year's decoration, traditionally. So there are two mochi, bold mochi. Okay. And then one is smaller and the one is bigger. Okay. And then small one is new version of us. Okay. And then the big one is the past of us. Okay, I didn't know that. There's meaning. So the past self, are we supposed to forget about the past self? I meant to appreciate. Appreciate it. For the past. Okay. Oh, that's really nice. I didn't know the meaning of it. So even for me, I decorate... My family decorates the house with Kagami-mochi. But usually we don't make it from scratch. We, like, buy it. Put it on display. Oh, like this one. Yes. So you can buy some that are on display like this. And it has mochi inside, I think. Yeah, this one. This is the original traditional version. This one. And by the way, what is the meaning of the red carpet that we have here now all of a sudden? Oh, we're gonna eat the mochi together. Okay. So we can eat together on the red carpet. Okay, this kind of means, like, New Year's color and good luck and good fortune, right? Yeah, New Year's color. New Year's color. Okay, great. So let's put this to dry. And then let's eat this mochi. Yep. Okay, let's do it. Lots to do. Okay, so here are all of the mochis that we made today. Yeah. This is amazing. This is my first time. I've done the pounding before. This is my first time actually making mochi balls. Pretty. Some of them turned out really good. They all look amazing. And you've also prepared for us some toppings for the mochi, right? Yeah, so first, this is the radish with the soy sauce. We're going to call it karami daikon. Oh, okay. Yeah. So it means it's a little bit spicy? A little bit spicy. And then next is the anko. Red bean paste? Yeah. Oh, that looks so good. Oh, thank you. She's ready to eat already. She's brought the bowls. Okay, and then we have? Kinako. And then finally, I also love this one. Kurogoma. Kurogoma, which is the black sesame. So you grind it down and then it's a really popular topping for mochi. And you've also made for everybody some like lunch, soup, right? For everybody? Yeah. That's so nice to kind of thank everyone for their hard work today. By the way, which one is your favorite? Do you like kinako or? I love kinako. Oh, kinako is your favorite. We also have the soy bean one. This one for you? Thank you. I didn't mean to take it from you. I love kinako. I also love the goma. I might need to try the goma one. Okay, let's try a bite. Oh, it's a little bit hard. I know. So that's the thing about mochi. You have to eat it fast. Make it fast and eat it fast. Have a bite. You can't eat it. He doesn't want me to eat it. You can try mine. Okay, thank you. That's so good. There's powder everywhere. But I love the black sesame with the sugar. You get a little bit of that black sesame flavor, but it's still sweet. It goes really well with the mochi. So what do you think? Was this a successful mochitsuki party this year? I would like to say success. Big success. Yes. Yes, this was very exciting. Thanks for bringing everybody to join. Yeah. Congratulations. Yes. To make a pretty mochi. Perfect mochi for a happy new year. Yeah. So we're going to finish up our mochi with everybody. Everybody's relaxing now after a day of hard work. But I'm going to come back to you. And you're going to show me basically your activities for New Year's Day. Yes. And we're doing it a little bit early. The reason why we're doing it a little bit early is the actual day is extremely crowded. There are a ton of people who go to the shrine on January 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Basically the whole first week of January. So we're doing it a little bit early. And we'll have a nice peaceful early praying for the new year. And then we'll enjoy the New Year's food that you made. Yes. That I helped make today. All right. So we'll see you for Day 2, New Year's Day. Yeah. We can't go without it. 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