oikawa tooru headcanons: new year
when he was younger, oikawa was scared of the bells that are rung in the couple of hours after the new year in a buddhist tradition known as joya no kare. the sound they produce is inescapable, loud, and low. now that he’s older, though, he’s really come to appreciate the process of the bell ringing, and he’s gone at least once to watch the monks (see here: https://youtu.be/qOwQN8zsiKk?t=62).
the oikawas have always been a pretty disciplined family, at least for propriety’s sake, so they get to the shrine pretty early in the morning on new year’s day to do their prayers. it’s less about being religious, which the oikawas are not, but simply because it is a custom that almost every japanese family does. tooru’s grandparents are probably more traditional and know more about shinto/buddhist teachings, but they don’t really enforce it on their children or grandchildren.
although sending physical nengajo (postcards to wish friends/families a happy new year) is becoming increasingly more old-fashioned, oikawa has always liked making his own special cards. he puts a bunch of cute stickers and writes cute, personalized messages. the iwaizumis always get the nicest ones with his prettiest handwriting.
he’s saved all the nengajo that people have sent to him since he was seven.
oikawa’s mom and sister are shopping fiends, and they really like to take advantage of fukubukuro, which is when stores fill bags with random leftovers and sell them at steep discounts. he’s gone with them a couple of times, especially when he was younger, but he always gets bored because they spend hours shopping. not a fan of the process, but he always gets some snacks and cool trinkets.
oikawa’s favorite tradition will always be the giving of otoshidama (envelopes of money given to kids). it’s not really a spoken thing, but as the baby of the family, oikawa always gets at least a few hundred more yen than the rest of the children in the family.
oikawa stores his money away in a savings account for a future date. he’s not sure what to spend it on, but it’s always there just in case.
of course, oikawa hates annual house cleaning that comes along with this time of year. he can’t really complain though because he’s always given the easiest tasks, like mopping and sweep the floor and wiping down the counters.
totally likes all the food that’s available at this time of year, and always looks forward to pretty osechi ryori (traditional foods served in 3-4 layer bentos called jubako), if only to look at all the colors if he doesn’t like the foods in them.
