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| | David Chart's Japan Diary: 2004/01/01 |
 | | On New Year's, Japanese people traditionally visit a shrine or temple just after midnight, eat mochi (pounded rice) and oshiruko (a sweet soup), and pray for health and good fortune for the coming year. |
 | | It was fun to help; the oshiruko was heated on a wood-burning stove, but it took a while to get it actually burning. |
 | | After that, there wasn't a great deal to do, except to have Yutaka's next door neighbour guess that I was in my late twenties and be gratifyingly surprised at my real age. |
| www.davidchart.com /Japan/Diary/20040101.html (1142 words) |
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