www.nenga.co.jp One of the biggest New Year's traditions is entering your friends in a lottery by sending them special nengajo greeting cards printed by the post office. This year it moves to the Internet. Sort of. You're not gonna make any of your friends a millionaire, and the prizes come from the site's eight sponsors, like Kentucky Fried Chicken. At any rate, it's a new way to use the Web and it'll keep you from having to transcribe all the addresses in your little black book. Japanese-language only.

www.nsknet.or.jp/~chrkaji/yasuko/osechi_e.html And then there's osechi ryori, precooked meals served during the first three days of the year. They consist of grilled, boiled and vinegared foods stacked in three-tier lacquer boxes. The reason you're not familiar with osechi ryori is it tastes awful. Really awful. So awful no one bothers to prepare it anymore (but old people buy it at department and convenience stores). Recipes, however, do still exist in the deepest reaches of the Internet, like Yasuko-san's site, which also gives descriptions of each dish and its symbolism. (Disclaimer: Some people actually like this stuff.)

mothra.rerf.or.jp/ENG/Hiroshima/Festivals/27.html Here's an explanation why the end of the year is just as meaningful as the new year in Japan -- and why, perhaps, the period is often translated as the yearend holidays rather than the New Year's holidays. It's cultural. This is a thorough guide to the paegentry and rituals surrounding the expiration of one calendar and the beginning of another. Also find out what all those decorations are suddenly going on sale in every neighborhood and about to be adorning everything from doorways to fenders.