New Years Preparations

     A few days before New Years Eve, Ryoko asked me to help make special ornaments for the house.  The leaders of Nagareyama have asked that people not purchase ornaments because they become too much waste afterwards.  We do not feel bound by this because we made them from material handy on the farm and the little plastic used will be recycled or reused when we finish with them.  The ornaments are called Kadomatsu and there are traditionally two, one placed on either side of the main entry to the house.  My job consisted of cutting 6 pieces of fresh bamboo at an angle so that the cuts are elliptical in shape.  Yuta was a very good helper for this step.  I wanted to cut through one of the nodes so that the solid part would transect the ellipse, but I was overruled on this.  My cuts are all in the internodes.  The pieces are staggered and tied together as you can see in the photo.  We also used a bit of rice hay, nawa (that I made earlier in the year), evergreen brances, and paper from the local shrine.  I am pleased with the way they look, and I know that next time I will be able to cut through the nodes because when we went to the shrine last night (the same shrine we were married in), their kadomatsu had been cut that way. . .