Spending New Years With the Mafia

New Years in Japan is a bit different than what I am used to in the USA. First it is a time for people to go back to their hometown and spend time with family. Starting around December 27 everyone goes on vacation and the entire country seems to close down. This lasts until January 3rd. Doors are adorned with large grass ornaments covered in sparkly bits of paper, knots and the new animal which represents the incoming year. This year the cow is center stage. Everyone works to give their home a thorough cleaning for days. Then on the 31st family and friends visit each others homes and bring small gifts of food or money and hang out for a while. There are traditional foods eaten, and later that night people go to their local shrine to give their first prayers of the year. While their people pick up their traditional daruma doll. The storey is that this doll is sleeping, hence you see no eyes. You make a wish and color in one eye of the doll. Later, when that wish comes true you color in the other eye. Then the doll is awake and has seen the wish. You can burn the doll when you are through. 

A couple friends of mine came over for an American style New Years party. I wanted to pick up some of these daruma dolls and so we set off for my local shrine at about 8:30 PM, WAY before anybody would be there. While browsing over the doll stand a local vendor came over to talk to us. He invited us to a makeshift reception room. This was a tent open to the shrine street heated by a kerosene heater. Since it's walls were susceptible to the wind, it was still rather chilly, and his offer of warm sake took the chill off. So we chatted for awhile and I noticed other people sitting in this tent seemed to stand out from your typical Japanese look. One man had a pencil thin mustached and wore an all white outfit complete with a white hat. The flashy jewelry made him look pimp-like. Another rather large gentleman wore an all silver jumpsuit, sported a cane and large gold pinky ring. He simply clapped to times and a woman who was serving us was at his beckon call. 

Soon the silver man left and our host for the past hour spoke to us in a hushed tone. He was explaining that the silver man was "boss". Boss in Japan refers to a yakuza or mafia boss. I thought this man must surely be pulling our leg. Soon the silver man rejoined our small party and decided to join the conversation. He asked which of us foreigners was the teacher at a local high school. One of my friends raised his hand and the gentleman pulled out a picture of his grand daughter. My friend being a very smart man quickly acknowledged that he recognized the girl and proclaimed she was a great student! Then the "boss" started to tell us that he was INDEED a mafia boss. To prove it he pulled off his glove and said "Do you understand?" while waving his hand in our face. The pinky was missing the first 2 digits. A sign of dedication for the yakuza. All of our eyes widened and I stuttered "yes, I understand, you are a boss of the yakuza". He seemed satisfied, chuckled a bit and then told us he was like Al Capone. 

After a few more words, i chugged down my sake, did my clapping ritual at the temple, bought some daruma dolls and we headed back to my apartment. What a way to ring in the New Year!