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Japanese people eat a special selection of dishes on New Year's Day called osechi. Some of the popular food included in osechi are miso soup with mochi ( sticky rice cakes) and vegetable (ozoni), sweetly boiled seaweed wrapped tuna fish (kobumaki), jellied fish paste (kamaboko), mashed sweet potatoThe sweet potato Ipomoea batatas is a crop plant whose large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are an important vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are minor vegetables. Another name commonly applied to orange-fleshed varieties of sweet potatoes i with marronalnifolia Bush chinkapin C. crenata Japanese chestnut C. dentata American chestnut C. henryi Henry's chestnut C. mollissima Chinese chestnut C. ozarkensis Ozark chinkapin C. pumila Alleghany chinkapin C. sativa Sweet chestnut C. seguinii Seguin's chestnut (kurikinton) and sweetened black beanThis article is on the plant. For alternate meanings, see Bean (disambiguation Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of Fabaceae (formerly Leguminosae) (English: leguminous, legumes), used for food or feed. Bean originally meant ths (kuromame). Many of the traditional dishes are sweet or sour because most of the stores used to close for about a week and there was not such thing as a refrigerator back then. Also, there are many variations of osechi foods and some foods eaten in one place are never eaten or even banned on the New Year's day. Today, sashimiSashimi ( Japanese: / Korean: hoe is a Japanese delicacy primarily consisting of the freshest seafoods thinly sliced served with only a dipping sauce (like soy sauce with wasabi, or ponzu sauce) and a simple garnish like shredded daikon radish. Some sashi and sushiSushi ( or or ) is a Japanese dish consisting of vinegared rice combined with other ingredients such as raw fish, raw or cooked shellfish, or vegetables. Sushi is sometimes confused with sashimi, which is the seafood sometimes served with sushi. In Japan, are often eaten, as well as food like pizza, fried chickens, and ice cream. To let the overworked stomach rest, Nanakusa gayu (Seven vegetable rice soup) is prepared on the 7th day or 15th day. The special food prepared for New Year's Day is one of the joys for many Japanese.
Japanese have a custom of sending New Year's Day postcardFor the computer diagnostic tool, see Postcard (computing). A postal card is a typically rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended to write on and be mailed without an envelope and at a lower rate than a letter. It is distinguished by sts (年賀状, nengajo) to their friends and relatives. It is similar to the EuropeFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sean custom of sending ChristmasChristmas (literally, the Mass of Christ) is a traditional holiday in the Christian calendar which takes place on the twenty-fifth day of December and celebrates the nativity of Jesus Christ. Christmas is also celebrated as a secular holiday throughout mu cards. Instead of sending Christmas cards, Japanese people send these postcards and post them so that they arrive on the 1st of January. The end of December and the beginning of January are the most busy times for the post office.
It is customary not to send postcards when you have had sorrowful tidings during the year. In this case, you are expected to send a simple postcard instead to tell your friends and relatives that you will not be expecting to receive any joyful New Year's cards from them. It is important to respect the dead in Japan.
Although these New Year's postcard has become a traditional custom now, this custom used to be started to give your friends and relatives faraway tidings of yourself. In an exaggerated expression, it could be said that this custom was made to tell people you do not meet often that you are alive and well.
Most of the postcards have the Chinese zodiac sign of the new year as their design. Japanese people have a cycle of 12 years. Each year is represented by an animal. The animals are, in order:
Mouse, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Bird, Dog, Boar
The order cannot be moved. For example, Year 2004 is Monkey and Year 2005 will be Bird. Those animals are traditionally incorporated into the New Year's Card design. Because a social individual might have several hundred letters to write, printing services offer wide variety of sample postcards with a short message that he or she only have to write addresses and maybe a personal message to that person to complete. This custom is in decline as young people tend to send E-mails instead, but it is still very popular.