Friday, January 1, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.79 Jan 2, 2010

Unlike Christmas cards, Japanese New Year cards arrive all at once on New Year's Day morning. I used to live with my grandfather and it was his biggest delight to take all cards for the whole family from our mail drop and sort them by family member's name. He kept a log of the number of cards that each of us received every year. To him, the number reflected power in our family. The one who received most cards had the biggest power. That was him every year because he represented our family. Distributing the sorted cards, he would announce proudly the standings of the year. My personal record was 63 cards when I was sixteen, and I got the second place to my grandfather, ahead of my father that year. Time has passed, I left home, my grandfather passed away, and the stupid competition ended. By the way, this year the number of New Year's cards for me was zero...