Welcome to The Avocado’s weekly discussion of Japanese pop culture! Happy New Year! A fresh, shiny new year to learn more about Japan and read, watch, eat, and listen to new Japanese books, shows/movies, food, and music. (Wow, that was a needlessly convoluted sentence.) Before we completely leave the holidays behind, I want to take a moment to talk about the feast I prepared for New Year’s Day: Osechi Ryori! I’ve wanted to try making this elaborate meal for a while now, and this year I finally had the time to attempt it. I made several substitutions for ingredients and dishes because it’s very difficult to find Japanese ingredients where I live, so not every dish was as traditional as I would have liked, but overall I was very happy with the outcome. I started planning it five days before New Year’s Day and started preparing the dishes on December 28th. It was a fair amount of work, but spacing it out the way I did made it manageable, and the end result was totally worth it. I’ve been eating the leftovers for days and still have a couple dishes left, so that’s a perk as well. Below I have some pictures of my Osechi Ryori, packed in a beautiful three-tier bento box that I got for Christmas. I’ll share some of the recipes for individual dishes another time, but if you’re interested in any of the dishes now, just ask and I’ll be happy to explain how I made them!
The table is set…complete with warm sake and a pot of genmaicha. 
And now for the big reveal! 
Tier 1: tamagoyaki, salmon kombu rolls, buttery kabocha, sunomono, namasu, and salmon roe. 
Tier 2: salmon sushi rolls, sunomono, tuna sushi rolls, pickled radish, simmered shrimp. 
Tier 3: chikuzenni (simmered chicken and vegetables, a kind of “main dish”).
If you want to learn about Osechi Ryori, this article and this article are very informative. I got several of my recipes from here and used this timeline to help me plan everything. I hope everyone had a nice time ringing in the new year!
And, as always…
What have you been watching/reading/playing/eating/listening to lately?
Happy Wednesday! 🙂
