It is the first time for Mei-Shun to walk to the nearest shrine in solar 2021. And it is also the last in lunar one starts from tomorrow. Novel coronavirus affects this place as well; hand-washing stone basin never stores water but ever let it flow, box of omikuji lots is accompanied by a bottle of sanitizer, reception table behind A-chan has a transparent curtain.
… or ねこあつめ, Mei-Shun’s favorite game on cell, taught her this morning that we have 小正月=ko-shogatsu today. Ancient people in our country used to have 小豆粥=azuki-kayu, red-bean-added rice porridge in breakfast, while she served Shin red-bean rice handmade by mom-in-law, not recognizing such a custom. It might be an invitation from the nearest shrine.
A-ke-ma-shi-te O-me-de-to go-za-i-ma-su. A Happy New Year!
Mei-Shun wishes you all safe, successful and sociable 2021 from the bottom of her heart.
Hello, little baby, great to see you. Which will you become, flowers or leaves? Well, you are too tiny to answer now. Either would be the happiest for Mei-Shun who calls you girls as the former, while boys the latter. Please listen, this is the last day of 2020. It seems like quite normal holidays starting from Thursday to a quiet weekend, leading to her birth month.
So the last month of 2020 starts. Mr. Blue has been ready from the end of November to warm Shin, Mei-Shun and Mikan-chan, going ahead toward the coldest season in our country. The wife is a winter lover — one of the reasons might be that she was born in January, when cedars already begin to scatter pollen. It tortures the husband whose birthday is June 6th.
Morning sunlight comes into our living room later and later these days. It sometimes seems like 初日の出=hatsu-hinode, the first sunrise of a new year for Shin and Mei-Shun which ascends from a neighbor’s rooftop. Pretty round shapes on the wall resemble fireworks on 3rd, Culture Day in the evening. The wife rushed upward the roof floor to find enormous flowers in the sky.
Yes, it is such a season. Mei-Shun means that there are a lot of 凶=kyo, the worst luck in the omikuji box at the nearest shrine. That might be because the priest would like to make more visitors happier in January: if they draw bad lots on New Year Day, and shrine maidens have to hand gloomy pieces of paper to them, following year would seem lugubrious for both of them.
… to you, Shin. He cooked Chinese-style pot dish for Mei-Shun on Saturday when lunar January started. If it is Japanese one, the wife is happy to make. However, she does not know how to do for the counterpart of our neighbor country. Full of spice including 花椒=huajiao or Sichuan pepper, garlic and red chili, he fried handmade beef ball and potato starch-coated chicken to put them together into the pot with various vegetables.
We have 大寒=daikan, the last and coldest of 二十四節気 today. However, it has been so warm for a few days that Mei-Shun felt really comfortable walking to the nearest shrine. To her surprise, the priest sat still in the main building. She had to ask him omikuji lots instead of helping herself. No.8 大吉=dai-kichi, the luckiest for Shin. What would come next for her?
All the same, as they had on NY Day.
Mei-Shun visited her home dentist Dr. M today. After a regular check last month, she should have finished it within 2019. However, her careless nature put necessary insurance card somewhere else instead of usual place. She looked and looked for it, took up 30 minutes to drive. This time everything went fine, let her make a new-year greeting to the doctor.
meishunkikunoe 