small talk

small talk
cutting the New Year's rice cake (January 11th)

We welcome the gods to stay in our house during the new year.We offer "Kagami Mochi" to the god.It is believed that the god stays in the "Kagami Mochi" during the new year. At the end of the new year, we eat the "Kagami Mochi", which is believed to have the god's spirit exists to wish good health and happiness of the family. "Kagami Mochi" is big and hard so we need to cut it into small pieces before eating. We call this event, the way of cutting and eating, "Kagami Biraki" We eat it as Sweet red-bean soup with mochi、Soup with rice cake.

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small talk
Happy New Year!

I'd like to talk about the eye-catching image in this article.In Japan, there is something called the Chinese zodiac.The Chinese zodiac, also known as the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac, is based on twelve different animals.The year 2022 will be the third, the tiger.These 12 animals are closely related to the time of day and the direction of the year.Japanese people are very familiar with the 12 animals. The white thing under the tiger is a food called "mochi".I will talk about mochi in the next article. In today's Japan, many old customs are disappearing.I hope that as many of these customs as possible will remain.

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small talk
Winter is coming

Today was the first day with blue sky in a long time.When I looked at Mt. Ibuki in the morning, it was covered with snow, but by the evening it had almost melted away. But on the other side of the mountain, in Nagano Prefecture, it was completely white.Mt. Ontake and the Nagano Alps were covered in snow. Ski resorts seemed to be open.I have a feeling that there will be a lot of snow this year, so I made an appointment to change the tires on my car to studless next week. It's going to be a cold winter this year.

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small talk
Now that summer time is over, autumn

DayligDaylight Saving Time in the United States has ended on November 8th. I don't really feel it because Japan hasn't introduced daylight saving time. Since daylight saving time is over, the time difference is 1 hour, so it is 14 hours. I didn't know until a few years ago that there was a difference in period from Europe. Moreover, it's a little shorter than the United States. It's the last Sunday in October. It was scheduled to end in 2021, but due to COVID‑19, the discussion ended without progress. The influence of COVID‑19 has come to such a place. The number of infected people in Japan is decreasing, but what […]

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