fhightimes | The Fandom High Times, Volume 5, Ninth Edition

Editor's Letter:
Dear Reader,

For those of you who managed to stay perfectly normal this week, I envy you. Over the weekend, I got to be an evil twin who heard voices in her head, instructing me to break up someone's wedding by pretending to be pregnant. At least, I hope I was pretending. I'm fairly certain the pregnancy tests were afflicted by weirdness as well. Fortunately, I managed to avoid falling in love with anyone during the week, though apparently a lot of you feel victim.

It seems that in Fandom, it's more important than usual to really know ourselves and get to know the people around us. This way, those who are unaffected by unusual goings-on can help protect the rest of us from doing anything strange.
This is the last edition for the semester, so the staff here at the Fandom High Times would like to thank you for reading the paper!
-- Hoshi Sato

Holiday Traditions of Japan
by: Hoshi Sato

In Japan, Christmas isn't a very big holiday. Traditionally, New Year's Day is a very important holiday. We send special greeting cards called nengajo, but they get sent in mid-December and are held by the post office to be delivered on New Year's Day itself. Before the new year, families clean their homes thoroughly, following Shinto tradition, and prepare special meals called osechi-ryori by New Year's Eve. This way, all the cooking is done ahead of time and we can enjoy the food for the first days of the new year.

On New Year's Eve, people go to the Buddhist Temple, where the temple bell rings 108 times. Then, on January 1st, people will go to the shrine or temple to pray for good health and prosperity in the coming year. We also pay courtesy calls to people we have significant relationships with to wish them "Akemashite, Omedeto Gozaimasu!" In the evening, we play special card games and spend time with our families.

Best wishes for the coming New Year!

Cooking Made Easy
by: Hoshi Sato

In Japan, we eat osechi-ryori for the New Year's celebration. The dishes are packed in jubako, which are lacquered boxes that are packed in layers. Each of the ingredients has a certain significance, such as happiness or long life.

The dishes that we eat for the New Year's celebration are kobumaki (kelp rolls), datemaki (rolled sweet omelet), namasu (pickled daikon radish and carrot), nimono (simmered burdock root, taro, carrots and shiitake mushroom), and my favorite, pink and white kamaboko (fish cakes).

Since some of these recipes are a bit more advanced, I am not going to share them. However, if anyone would like to try them, I would be happy to make them for you.

Coffee Pin-Up

Cute Kitten Picture

credits
editors: Joan Girardi, Hoshi Sato
words: Hoshi Sato
pictures: The fabulous Chloe Sullivan, the amazing Rory Gilmore, the marvelous Peter Parker, the effervescent Rikku, the middling Cal Stephanides, the talented Joan Girardi, and the effusive Hoshi Sato
adviser: Ghanima Atreides
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