Tomorrow is the date to eat soba.

My family will eat "Toshikoshi soba", or one of noodles while we watch the very famous singing TV program named "Kohaku utagassen", which lasts from 7:00 pm to 11:45 pm.

In the past, we had routine works by the end of a year like cleaning everywhere in and around the house, cooking rice cake with a stone mills, making osechi dishes, so we had been very busy after the Christmas. However, we quit one after another and we clean the house a little, visit the family grave and cook "Toshikoshi soba".

If we cut off these works, the Japanese traditional customs will be disappeared, but my mother in law also cooks for us and we don't want to eat a lot of same dishes every day...

So I visited my ancestor's grave and cooked black beams today.

明日は、紅白歌合戦を観ながら、年越しそばを食べて2016年が終わるんだろうなあ。

昔は隅から隅まで大掃除をしたり、石臼で餅つきをする日、おせち料理を作る日…と毎日が決まっていて忙しかったけれど、どんどん手抜きをして、今ではかる～く掃除と、お墓詣りと年越しそばだけやっています。

私が手を抜くと、伝統的な日本文化がここで絶たれてしまうと分かっているけれど、姑さんも作ってくれてるし、そんなに同じものばかり食べないしなあ…。

ということで、今日はお墓参りと黒豆だけ作りました。

Today's beautiful sunset♪

  Why do we eat "Toshikoshi soba"?


Toshikoshi soba  is one of noodles, we eat it on the end date of a year.
This is one of Japanese traditional cultures, most of us think we can't end a year without eating it.

This custom has been continued since Edo period in Japan, about 1814.
Soba is so soft that we can cut it with our teeth easily, so people say  if we eat on December 31, we will take off all the misfortune and disasters of this year and wish a new wonderful year.