The end of the year is always a special time for my family.  More so than Christmas or the Fourth of July.  It is usually the only time I go back to the Big Island.  Festivities begin with ‘mochi-tsuki’ on the morning of December 30th.  My grandmother washes and soaks the rice the night before.  Then we steam the rice over a fire in wooden boxes.  By 7:30am, the first batch of rice is ready to be pounded.  Two people mash the rice in the ‘usu’ with wooden mallets.  Once the rice is mashed together, one person pounds the rice with the wooden mallet while the other turns and adds water to the rice.  After that, the mochi is brought to a long table where everybody helps shape the mochi into little patties.  Some mochi have ‘an’, sweet bean paste, added to them.  Please see another family’s ‘mochi-tsuki’ experience. It’s very close to what we do.

After we’re finished putting away the mochi, we go to our family and friends’ gravesites to offer respect.  We bring flowers, usually anthuriums and carnations, and offer incense.  We used to bring beer and food, but it attracts animals to the graves.  It’s not a solemn occasion, just one of remembrance.

The 31st is what we really wait for.  In the morning, we set up my grandparents’ garage for the party at night.  We lay out tarpaulin (amayoke?) on the floor, then ‘goza’ on top the tarpaulin.  Then we put out small tables and mats to sit on, and a larger table for serving the food buffet-style.  We also put up tarpaulin as makeshift walls around the openings of the garage.  In the morning, my grandmother, mother, and aunt make makizushi, oshizushi, and inarizushi.  The rest of the afternoon is devoted to making the main dishes.  My mother makes fried shrimp coated with finely shredded potatoes.  It’s delicious.  Dinner usually starts at 6:00pm.  Throughout the night, we talk, drink, sing karaoke, and play fireworks.  Then at midnight, we light off the red celebration firecrackers.  Everyone hugs, says “Happy New Year”, and then we eat hot soba.  Around 1:30am, everyone’s ready to go home and sleep.  I go to my friend’s house and keep drinking till 4:30am.     

On the morning of January 1st, we all go to my grandparents’ house to eat my grandmother’s ‘zouni’, or mochi soup.  It’s a little bit difficult to get up at 7:00am after drinking all night, but you can’t fight tradition.  Besides, the ‘zouni” is really good.  I usually have four mochi in my soup.  With that, we know that 2003 is over, and 2004 has begun.

In January, I returned to Oahu, and immediately went back work.  Nothing changed. The same work was on my desk from the year before.  I went to my Japanese classes like the year before.  Everything seemed normal, but then I decided to injure myself.  Thirteen days into the New Year, I severely twisted my ankle stepping down from a curb.  I noticed a couple people about 10 yards to the right of me so I pretended nothing happened.  Meanwhile, I’m yelling in my head.  I parked on the second level of the parking structure, so I had to climb up the stairs.  And of course, I didn’t park near the stairs.  I still had to walk across the parking lot.  Whether there was an elevator or not, I’m not sure.  I only had one goal, get to my car.  Once I got to my car, my goal was to get home.  I was in pain, but figured that since it was a sprain, I could still use my ankle while the injury was fresh.  After a long drive, I got home, into bed, and iced my ankle.  The pain kept on increasing, and I didn’t get any sleep.  In the morning I couldn’t walk so I called in sick to work.  I called my friends to get me crutches and take me to the hospital.  Of course, they were at work, and I didn’t want to make them have to take time off, so I waited.  From the time I injured myself until I saw a doctor, was about 24 hours? 24 hours of pure hell.  I felt like my ankle was exploding from the inside.  The pain never subsided.  It only increased.  I took X-rays of my ankle, and the doctor told me that the ankle wasn’t broken and to stay off it for a few days.  After another week of pure hell and missing work, I went to see the doctor again.  Based on the amount of blood and continued swelling, they said that I tore ligaments in my ankle.  So this time, they gave me a brace and said recovery would take 4 to 6 weeks.  I’m trying to be an optimist.  I’m looking at this situation as squeezing all my bad luck into the beginning of the year so that the rest of the year will be good luck.

My 2004 resolutions are to be healthier in body and mind, understand Japanese (meaning to improve my terrible listening and memorizing skills), play Green Day’s “Time of Your Life” on guitar (don’t know how to play any song yet), and my new goal is to “Learn to Walk Without Injuring Myself!!!”