New Year’s in Japan with my Japanese Wife’s Parents

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We’re heading back to my Japanese wife’s hometown in Aichi to visit her parent’s for the New Year’s. In Japan everyone usually travels to their hometown between Dec 28 to Jan 4, kinda like Christmas in the West. This year, we’re doing Mochi Tsuki, meaning rice cake pounding, a traditional Japanese year-end activity that typically happens around the 30th in this area. Since we’re coming early this year, Wolfy gets to experience it for the first time. In Japan, rice itself is considered sacred and believed to house divine spirits. Foods made from rice, such as mochi and sake, are seen as spiritually powerful and so are often eaten during celebratory occasions, with the biggest event being New Year’ so Mochitsuki became customary in Japan to welcome the New Year’s god and to pray for blessings of happiness for the year ahead.

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47 Comments

  1. I miss spending ew Years in Japan with Family. But we do what we can in the States. All the foods, we have and spend it with family. We simply aren’t able to go to the shrine, because there isn’t one where we live. I guess the saying is true… if you don’t stay up for New Years you will get gray hair…

  2. not being rude but damn they got you good with recording your life and putting it willingly here for some finiancial agin, just enjoy life my good man avoid the addiction to technology being near you all day.

  3. Every anime fan dreams of a life like this—just like the one this YouTuber is living and enjoying. If I ever get the chance to live there, I’d take it without hesitation

  4. The way Wolfy switches from Japanese to English when speaking to his grandfather and then you!!

    I feel like a proud auntie. He can speak so well already in both languages. It felt like it was just yesterday that he was born and then suddenly he is so expressive and articulate.

  5. Happy New Year!!🎉 This was such a fun video. I love Wolfie knowing all the cars. My daughter learned to read early using logos like that ie. knowing the symbol for Taco Bell, then seeing the words Taco Bell and making that association. Good for Wolfie!! Love seeing your extended family, especially Grandma and Grandpa ❤.

  6. Wolfie is already bilingual, which is amazing! These are my favorite videos; they are so wholesome. Happy New Year, Paolo!

  7. How fast the year has passed. Feels like I just watched your last year New Year adventure, and then it is already this year. Your son is just so cute and handsome, and his best year is here. ☺️😊☺️

  8. We should collaborate! I’d love to invite you and yours to my restaurant and then come to Japan and do reviews of Indian food. Let’s do it!

  9. Happy New Year to you and your family. I wish you a creative and healthy 2025. Really love your videos. Otsukare samadeshita.

  10. always love watching your family time videos Paolo. Please do always post more of it!❤

  11. I love that hes so interested in the japanese car brands! I love them too 😅😅😅😅 😊😊😊

  12. Happy New Year to all of you! Your family is beautiful! Maiko's parents are so sweet, and it's lovely to see Wolfie's relationship with them, even thought you don't see them that often.

  13. Your New Years videos have become my favorite videos you post! 🥰New Years in Japan is such a relaxing, cozy time, and Maiko's parents are so sweet. They remind me a lot of my host parents who I lived with when studying abroad there 🙂 めっちゃ懐かしいね。Thank you for giving us this sweet glimpse into spending time there – Wolfy is getting so chatty and big!! I have a little 4-yr-old baby girl and watched all of your baby videos with him – seeing him grow is so precious, you're both such good parents 🤎

    Love from metro-Detroit, Michigan (huge Japanese community here, btw 💖).

  14. I take my eyes off Paolo's channel for 5 seconds and Wolfy can already go through the ticket gate like a pro!?!? And speaks well in two languages too! He's gotten so big now🥹

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