It feels like New Year’s when we hear heavy snow warnings in various places and that the temperature is around 0 ℃. When I go to a nearby supermarket, there are a lot of New Year’s foods, and the song “How many more sleeps do you have  until New Year … “is played, but not at all many days, just one sleeping, it’s New Year. A lot of Toshikoshi soba (soba noodles traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve in Japan) is also lined up. There are soba noodles from all over the local country that I haven’t seen before, and the price  of boiled soba noodles, which is usually around 50 yen, is doubled to 90 yen. We can see the usual peaceful scenery, such as eating Toshikoshi soba while listening to “Kohaku Uta Gassen” and going to a nearby temple or shrine for Hatsumoude (the New year’s visit)  when we hear the Joya no kane (Bells rung 108 times at temples around midnight on New Year’s Eve).

各地に大雪注意報が出て、気温も0℃前後とか言うことを聞くと、お正月らしい気分がします。近くのスーパーに行くと、お正月用の食品がずらりと並び、「もういくつ寝るとお正月・・・」と言う歌が流れていますが、いくつ寝るどころか、ひとつ寝たらお正月です。年越し蕎麦もいっぱい並んでいます。普段見かけたこともない各地の蕎麦が並んでいたり、いつもなら50円前後の茹で蕎麦が倍の90円の値段がついていたりします。「紅白歌合戦」を聴きながら年越し蕎麦を食べ、除夜の鐘が聞こえる頃には近くのお寺や神社に初詣に出かけるといった、いつもながらの平和な風景が目に浮かびます。