Today begins a new microseason! If this is your first time joining us, scroll down past the forecast to read about what exactly a microseason is. For the rest of you, let’s jump in!
The current Solar Term is Shōkan (小寒), the 23rd solar term (節気, sekki), which means Small Cold.
Shōkan started Jan 5th and lasts until Jan 20th. We talked about this last time, so go here if you’d like to read more.
Two days ago (yeah, I’m behind), Jan 10th, began 水泉動, the 68th microseason (候, kō) which is read shimizu atataka o fukumu and means Frozen Spring Water Starts to Thaw. This is the second microseason of Shōkan, which is itself the fifth solar term of winter.
This is when the frozen springs in the land are starting to warm up, thaw, and move slightly. This is the coldest time of the year, but the days are getting longer and the sun is gradually warming up the earth as spring approaches.
Although these can be caught and eaten all year, it is said that they are especially good in winter. The are suppose to be good for the liver and help with hangovers, making them very useful for this post-New Years time.
They are quite good in miso soup. In the Edo era, kids would catch them in the morning and sell them to housewives, making a little pocket money.
Jan 11 is Kagami Biraki (鏡開き), which refers to the breaking of the New Year’s mochi cake. This perhaps requires an explanation. For New Years, sticky rice is pounded and baked into large mochi cakes called kagami mochi consisting of two layers with an orange put on top. It can get much more decorated, but that is the basic design. This is a New Years decoration and is an offering to the gods, usually placed in the household Shinto alter (the kamidana). Anyway, on Jan 11th then, the cakes are broken open and eaten. By this time the mochi has often started to crack anyway. It is good luck to use a mallet (or ones fist) to hammer them open. The mochi is then often used in ozōni (お雑煮), a mochi soup, or ochiruko (お汁粉), a red-bean soup. Both are very good!
(Hive’s Japanese cooking expert 
Here is a haiku for this microseason:
On New Years, traditionally before even the first food of the year was eaten, the first scoop of water would be used to make Ofukucha, a lucky tea made with tea leaves, ume (pickled plums), kumbu seaweed, and sometimes pepper. After it was prepared it might last the entire first month (or beyond). It was drank with a prayer and a wish for health for the entire family for the year.
Ofukucha is a kigo (season word) for New Years, which traditionally was the beginning of spring, but nowadays is considered a separate season lasting for the first few days or week or the new year.
Will move this info to another post one of these days, but for now, briefly:
The next microseason starts on Jan 14th. See you then for the next forecast!
