The new year had begun. It was New Year’s Day.
Like typical Japanese people, we become Christian at Christmas and switch to Shinto for the New Year. So, it's time for hatsumōde—the first shrine visit of the year. We’re not the kind of family where girls wear furisode for New Year’s shrine visits, so everyone goes in casual clothes.
It’s around 2 PM—quite a while after all the “Happy New Year” greetings had been exchanged.
“Hey, Yuu! What’re you doing? Everyone else is already ready!”
Dad called out to me. Unlike before, he doesn’t just barge into my room anymore. I said I didn’t mind, but he probably still feels awkward about that time when he suddenly opened the door and saw me half-naked.
“Sorry, I just couldn’t decide what to wear.”
I step out of my room as I say this. Dad comments, “You used to just pick something instantly. You've really become a girl, huh?” But I think what he imagines when he says “can’t decide what to wear” and what I’m actually struggling with are two different things.
“Yuri, what is that?”
“Yuu, seriously? You’re going out like that?”
“Yuu-chan, that’s totally lacking in youthfulness!”
“Leave me alone! Warmth matters more than youth to me.”
…Yeah, I knew they’d say something. But still, what’s wrong with wearing 240-denier tights?
Looking down at the others' legs: Ryou-nee's tights are thin enough to faintly show some skin—probably 90 denier. (Since she’s complaining, she’s probably not wearing anything over 100.) Mika-nee is still young—hers are probably 30 to 50 denier. And as for Hina…
“Whaaat?! Hina-nee, you're so youthful! Your youth is blinding!”
She’s bare-legged! Even if her skirt goes down to her knees, bare legs! So this is what true youthful energy in a middle schooler looks like! That’s a realm I could never reach.
Incidentally, the reason it took me so long to come out of my room was because I couldn't decide which tights to wear. As our tights talk continues, Dad asks us:
“What are you girls even talking about?”
Yeah… I guess a guy wouldn’t understand tights talk.
After that, we all got into Dad’s car and headed to a small local shrine. Small, but apparently with a decent bit of history—dating back to the Edo period, supposedly. That means it survived the anti-Buddhist purges of the Meiji era and is now a well-rooted part of the community.
Despite it being over half a day since the New Year’s midnight peak, there’s still a line of people coming to offer prayers.
On the way there, I asked if hatsumōde wasn’t something people usually did with friends. Ryou-nee had apparently already gone with her friends around midnight. Mika-nee, on the other hand, plans to go on the 4th with her volleyball teammates. Shockingly, her volleyball team has their first practice right after that visit. So, practice starts on the 4th… That’s only a three-day New Year break. Brutal.
As for Hina, all her friends had gone to visit relatives and weren’t in town, so she’s kind of on her own this year. (Though she got mad when I called her a loner.)
While we waited at the end of the line, we went over everyone's plans for the new year.
Dad, true to his word (despite he temporarily going abroad for me), had been in Japan from August through December. This year, though, he’s heading overseas again on the first morning flight on the 5th. So, including today, we only have four more days together. This time around, it feels like we actually made a ton of memories—maybe even for the first time. I don’t know how many more we can make in the time that’s left, but let’s try to squeeze in a few more.
Ryou-nee is graduating from grad school in March and will start working at some kind of life sciences research place in April. I didn’t understand a word of the research topics (all technical jargon), but I did learn one thing—the job is super close by. With a 30-minute drive, she can get there from home. Compared to her 90-minute commute to university, that’s a big win for her.
Mika-nee will be a senior in college this year and had planned to become a PE teacher next year. But now, a pro team is aggressively scouting her, and she’s conflicted.
She says, “I’m not confident I could make a living off volleyball.”
But wasn’t she selected for U-23 before?
“Yeah, but I’ve never actually played as a regular on the national team,” she says.
Apparently, there's a super-strong player six years older than her, and as long as that person’s around, she won’t make it into the starting lineup. So Mika-nee is unsure if a company would really hire someone who can’t even be a regular on the national team. That bar seems way too high.
As for me and Hina—we said we plan to apply to Matsubara Girls’ High School. Yep, I settled on Matsubara too. From a practical and logical standpoint, being only 10 minutes away by bike (20 round trip) is just too convenient to ignore.
Even the next closest school, Kasumizaka, takes 30 minutes one way—an hour round trip.
There are at least 200 school days a year, so we’re talking about a difference of 133+ hours per year. That’s a waste.
After we talked about our school plans, my sisters gave me advice:
“Make sure to enjoy high school life!”
“Still, once Yuri becomes a high schooler, housework is going to get tough again…”
“Tough? It’s just going back to the chore rotation from five months ago.”
“Well, once you get used to an easier life, it’s hard to go back.”
“Mika-nee, you’re barely even home to begin with!”
I snarked back at my sisters as they complained.
Since mid-November last year, I had been handling most of the household chores. Whether I intended to or not, for the entire months of November and December, all I did was study for entrance exams and do housework. I didn’t have anywhere to go or any friends to hang out with, anyway.
In the mornings, I’d wake up the family (if I didn’t, breakfast would never get cleared away), clean, and do laundry. Once that was done, I’d study at my desk until noon. I’d eat lunch—nothing fancy, since I was usually the only one home—and then head to the park for some exercise. After coming back, I’d bring in the laundry I had hung out in the morning, and in the evening I’d go grocery shopping for dinner. Sometimes Ryou-nee or Hina would cook dinner, but most of the time, it was on me.
That was my routine for two straight months. I know it sounds odd to say it about myself, but I actually enjoyed it. Up until now, weekday dinners were always rushed and thrown together, but having time meant I could think through what to make. These days, there are tons of cooking websites online, so I’d use those and cook based on what looked good. If something didn’t turn out well, I’d tweak it. Luckily, I had willing taste testers, and thanks to that, my repertoire grew quite a bit.
Even cleaning became fun. Our house is unnecessarily large, so cleaning the whole thing every day was impossible. I’d make a plan—today I’d thoroughly clean the kitchen area, tomorrow the bathroom—and found that approach interesting. I also managed to air out everyone’s clothes, which felt like a victory.
Laundry was the only real problem. Even though I wear them too now, I still felt a strange sense of guilt every time I touched bras and other women's underwear. What’s more, the laundry rules had changed: the person on laundry duty now had to wash everyone’s underwear, and was also responsible for folding and putting away all the clothes. This rule used to apply only among the three sisters, but after I became a girl, it was extended to include me too.
I don’t mind rules being updated, but all three of them have their own quirky preferences for how their underwear should be folded and stored—it’s a hassle.
And then, even though I’d already seen and touched them against my will, I still felt depressed when I saw the tag on my oldest sister’s bra that said “G70.” The difference in "battle power" was overwhelming. The fact that I didn’t find it exciting probably means I’ve really started losing my sense as a guy.
My housework ended up being surprisingly well-received—so much so that someone even suggested I just become a full-time housewife. Yeah, right. And who exactly is going to support me in that case?
As we were enjoying this talk about the future—
“Yuuji!”
—a familiar, nostalgic voice called out to me.
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