Happy New Year! While salutations of ¡±akemashite omedet¨ gozaimasu¡± (¡°Happy New Year¡°) filled the air in most parts of the country at the start of the month, my home was filled with exclamations of a different sort.
¡°So that¡¯s where the lost karuta game card went,¡± I heard my wife shout. ¡°Try to keep your dried ramen snacks in your mouth in the future, not under the sofa!¡± ¡ª that was her again, as was, ¡°Ooh, it¡¯s been dead quite a while, I think.¡± That last one came upon the discovery of a cockroach husk found under the refrigerator.
The Japanese have a lovely custom called ¡±¨²õ¨Âá¾±,¡± or ¡°big cleaning,¡± during the New Year holidays. That¡¯s when we clean the dark corners, hard-to-reach spots and most bothersome places in our homes. I say it¡¯s a lovely custom, but I graciously let my wife take the lead on doing most of it. She is the Japanese one in our relationship, after all, and I would never dream of cultural appropriation. In Scotland, a certain amount of dirt and mess is believed not only to build character but antibodies, too.
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