ah, tradition

The star and the rest of the decorations came down yesterday, along with the Christmas tree, and up went the kadomatsu pine decorations for the new year. When M asked the women at the flower shop where we bought them what they could be attached with, one of the women went completely blank, and the other suggested gamu tepu, or packing tape. We were laughing at how much people have forgotten about traditions, and looked on the internet for possible suggestions. Then our friend Ben dropped by the other day with some hemp rope that he suggested would be perfect, and it was.

The odd thing was that the next day I was walking from the station to my office, and passed three kadomatsu displays. Of course, I had to stop and check, and found that--sure enough--they were each attached with gamu tepu. I don't know, maybe it's a traditional thing after all.