New Year's Eve: Toshikoshi Soba and Kōhaku!

Celebrate the new year Japanese style with toshikoshi noodles and watching the Kōhaku Uta Gassen! Bring your favorite munchie to share!

New Year's Eve (大晦日 おおみそか oh-misoka) is celebrated rather quietly by many people in Japan. There isn't the big urge to go to a party to send off the old year with champagne and fireworks and tooting horns. New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and the few days afterwards are when you spend time with family at home. On New Year's Eve, you'll stay home and reflect on the old year, watch some year-ending entertainment programs on TV like "Kōhaku Uta Gassen", and perhaps go to the local temple at midnight, while hearing the 108 rings of the bell to "ring away" the evils of the old year.
The traditional evening meal to have while waiting to greet the new year is a bowl of hot soba noodles, called 年越し蕎麦 (としこしそば　toshikoshi soba), which roughly means "end the old year and enter the new year soba noodles".

"Kōhaku Uta Gassen" literally means "Red and White Song Battle". The program divides the most popular music artists of the year into competing teams of red and white. The "red" team or akagumi 紅組 is composed of all female artists (or groups with female vocals), while the "white" team or shirogumi 白組 is all male (or groups with male vocals). The honor of performing on Kōhaku Uta Gassen is strictly by invitation, so only the most successful J-Pop artists and enka singers of the year can perform. They totally dress up for this show. It is a big highlight in a singer's career.

We will enjoy hot toshikoshi noodles while watching the Kōhaku Uta Gassen. Fireworks at midnight! Let's ring out the old year in style!