Although many social systems in Japan were changed to that in Western way after the world war 2 because of American influence, when I was a small boy, we still used to celebrate the Spring Festival (春節) even in Japan. We called it 旧正月 against Western New Year (January 1: 新正月), and enjoyed 2 times of festivities (good for kids: ^_^).
A traditional way to spend new year holidays in Japan is as follows:
Omisoka (大晦日: Dec. 31st)
After cleaning everywhere in house, we eat Toshikoshi (年越) - Soba (buckwheat noodles = 荞麦面) as late dinner. There are many derivation stories why we eat Soba. The most popular one is to live slim but longer (a sort of superstition).
Osechi-ryori(お節料理)
Osechi-ryori is prepared by spouse (usually wife and grandmother in Japan) during the last 2 to 5 days before the new-year day. They cook a lot of dishes that may last for 3 days or so during new-year holidays. By doing so, spouse is released from cooking work and can have a good rest during new-year days.
Therefore, those dishes must be long lasting, well cooked ones, because in old days, there was no refrigerators. However, think about even 50 years ago. The rooms in Japanese style home were cool enough due to no good heat isolation system in old days. So, it was not a big issue.
The Osechi is put in the 2 to 3 layered boxes (named Ju-bako: 重箱), and kept in a cool place at home. Many contents (names) come from superstitions, e.g. shrimps are thought healthy even stooped by old age, and Herring roe is a wish of many children. These are so many special dishes (more than 20) for new year days and I can introduce them more in detail if you are interested in.
Left: smaller size from a restaurant, and
Right: large size I personally bought at a store.
This year, we took a short cut for Osechi preparation due to time constraints (It became popular especially in young generations). We bought a Osechi set from a restaurants as shown in the picture below.
A typical Osechi set (1,000 RMB, expensive?)
But those are enough only for 2 dinners for 2 person. Hence, I personally made another 2 boxes (larger ones shown left - below). These days, it is rather easier because we can buy anything at a supermarket, and they are much more economical than the restaurant one.
If we would try to make them from scratch, such as Black beans in syrup, it may at least take several days. My grandmothers used to do it, but we don’t, ha! ha! ha! (^_^!)
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