Even in Hiroshima city there was much snow, like a storm of snow, and at the Sanyo Expressway (mountain side of Hiroshima) over 40 cars piled up because of the icy road. In terms of weather it was a terrible New Years Eve, but in our Hana hostel, thank God, we could enjoy a peaceful New Years Eve.
We followed Japanese New Years Eve tradition by serving Toshikoshi Noodles for every guest for dinner. Our staff members made them, decorated with tenpura of shrimp and Japanese herb leaves. It was a little small, but very tasty.
80% of our guests are from overseas. It looked hard for the guests to make loud slurping noises when they ate the noodles like Japanese people (that's the correct noodle-eating technique) , but everyone could eat the noodles using chopsticks skillfully.
I tried to explain the Toshikoshi Noodles culture to the guests like "Japanese people eat soba noodles while listening to the bells, and wish for health and longevity in the year to come", but they just had wondering looks on their faces. I guess traditional Japanese culture is sometimes a little strange for foreigners!! Anyway homemade tenpura was received well by everyone.
Then at midnight, we could listen to Joya-no-kane, bells which ring the old year out at Joukouji temples just in front of Hana Hostel. In Buddhist beliefs, humans are born with 108 worldly desires which are removed when the bell is struck 108 times. We could remove them, so 2010 will be a nice year for us ;-).
Happy New Year!!
