January 5th-9th, 2026 is Winter-SHOKAN (Lesser cold)-67th KOU “SERI flourishes”
The first day of the 67th KOU is KAN-NO-IRI (the beginning of winter). From here comes SHOKAN (Lesser cold) and DAIKAN (Greater cold), the coldest times of the year.
At this time of year, when almost all fresh vegetables are gone, it is an old custom to search for some vegetables/herbs that are still growing in the fields and eat them while thinking about spring, one of which is SERI (Japanese parsley).
I finally found wild parsley!
I’d actually been looking for it for ages. According to websites, it grows wild all over the country, from suburban areas and farmland to mountainous regions, but for some reason I’d never seen it around here.
January 7th is the day to take NANAKUSA (seven vegetables/herbs)-GAYU (rice porridge).
