It was another sunny day from the morning. Now that it’s mid-November, the mornings and evenings have become quite cold—hard to get by without a heater. There are more cars on the roads too, and the atmosphere already feels like the year-end season. Around this time of year, people start preparing for the end of the year, and all kinds of information and events begin to appear. As I mentioned in a previous post, Japan seems to be a country that places special importance on the year’s end—December 31st. The sense of closing one year and welcoming the next is very strong here. One example of this is the Kōhaku Uta Gassen (“Red and White Song Contest”), a famous TV program broadcast every year on December 31st. In this show, performers are divided into two teams: the Red Team (female singers) and the White Team (male singers). They take turns singing—about forty artists in total—and at the end, the better team is chosen. The performers are popular singers and well-known veteran artists who appear almost every year. And around this time of year (yesterday, in fact), the list of this year’s performing artists was announced. In recent years, with the growing popularity of Korean culture in Japan, K-pop artists have also begun appearing in the show every year. Since the program is broadcast live, those artists actually come to Japan to perform for it. It’s aired by Japan’s national public broadcaster (NHK).
This program has been broadcast since 1953, and even today, appearing on it is considered an honor for singers. In Japan, December 31st is called Ōmisoka (New Year’s Eve), and it has long been a custom for families to watch Kōhaku Uta Gassen on that night. There was even a time when it was said that about 80% of the population watched it, though nowadays that habit has faded, and the viewership has dropped to around 30%. I still watch it myself, but most of the new singers are people I don’t know anymore 😂 The program airs from around 7:00 p.m. until 11:45 p.m. on the 31st. I guess it’s just part of my old habit, but whenever I watch this program, I can’t help but feel, “Ah, another year has come to an end.” 😅 I’ll probably watch it again this year too! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dhaku_Uta_Gassen
This afternoon, I came to my workshop for a little while. After this, I’ll do some cleaning in areas I don’t usually get to. Since it’s a woodworking shop, there’s always plenty of wood dust and shavings. I also need to put away the summer equipment and prepare the heaters for winter. After that, I plan to do the final inspection of the 3-sun cube boxes.
