Hello all you wonderful and beautiful people. I hope you are all doing great! Most of you reading are either in the new year already or are soon to be there.

A few things on my minds here, so I thought a rambling blog post in order!

2019: A new emperor

So this is 2019. By Japanese reckoning it is Heisei 31, which means it is the 31st year of the current emperor's reign. We don't call him Heisei, we just call him the emperor, but when he retires and a new one moves in, his name will officially become Emperor Heisei. This system of doing dates after the years the emperor is around is cumbersome—cumbersome enough that the Japanese government itself is moving away from it more and more every year as it more fully adopts to the Christian Era system for most things—but it is interesting.

And Heisei 31 will be the final year of this current era, as the current emperor is retiring. In March (I think) we will be getting a new emperor. No one really knows what to expect of him. The current emperor is much beloved. He is quite anti-war and never hesitates to apologize for past Japan aggression or poke at the ultra right wing in the country who would like to repeat it. He is also quite the scholar and routinely publishes scientific papers. Even people in Japan who think the Imperial system outdated think very highly of him.

But his son...? He is polite and does all his required PR appearances and so on, but we don't really have any insight into what kind of person he is. To be discovered, eh? At any rate, that will be an exciting event in a few months.

Earth Pig Year

In the Japanese (and Chinese) horoscope, this is the year of the earth pig.

This guy? Naw, though he is an Earth-born Pig.

The Japanese horoscope is silly, but it can be fun. There are 12 animals (in order: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar) and there are 5 elements (wood, fire, water, earth, metal). Each of the animals will cycle once for each element, making for a cycle of 60 years to get through everything.

There is a fun origin story behind why those 12 animals and why the order they appear in. I'll write that out later if anyone is interested.

This cycle of 60 is actually really important to help historians date old documents, art, reigns of figures, and so on. Since 60 marks a return to the beginning of the cycle, 60 years of age is a very special year—it even has a special name: kanreki (還暦). It is considered a rebirth of sorts, a new beginning, the start of your second life. One might imagine the big celebration that takes place for such a special event.

What's So Special About an Earth Pig

Feng Shui is hardly my thing^†, but if you go for it, a quick Google search tells me that the year of the earth pig means these are lucky:

Numbers: 4, 6, 8
Colors : yellow, gray, brown, golden
Days: the 2nd, the 7th, the 10th, the 11th day of every month of the Chinese calendar
Directions: southeast, northeast

You are pig if you were born in: 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007. You are earth pig if you were born 60 years ago. Time to celebrate your kanreki!

First Shrine Visit

Called Hatsumode (初詣), the first shrine visit of the year takes place sometime within the first 3 days of the year. Pretty much every one in the country will visit their local shrine, pray for happiness and luck in the new year, and maybe even buy some good luck charms. This is not as religious as you might thing. Most here have little belief in or use for any gods. It is more of a traditional thing that everyone does because everyone else does and because they have always done it. Just good harmless fun, at any rate.

I haven't gone to hatsumode yet. I suppose I will take my kids down to the shrine tomorrow or the day after, when the crowds have thinned so we don't have to wait in line.

In addition to first shrine visit, there are a bunch of "firsts" that everyone makes note of. First meal of the new year, first dream, first sunrise, and so on. There are lucky things attached to all of them, but these days few know or care about such matters and it is more of a fun game.

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Hmm.... I guess that is all I have on my mind. My son has a tooth about to come out and I keep encouraging him to pull it before he accidentally swallows it. But that's not really New Years stuff, is it? I'm going to go make some new years mochi (sticky rice cake) and drink some new year's sake. Have a good day y'all!

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Footnotes

†: I actually do think horoscopes work to a degree, but this has less to do with any strange predictions or in what it tells you and more with how you interpret the meaning of its usually very cryptic "prediction".

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Thank you for visiting and reading :)

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	David LaSpina is an American photographer lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time. More?