Read the following paragraph and underline the topic sentences.
Japanese New Year
New Year’s Day is special traditional holiday for Japanese. In earlier years, it often lasted two days, and men of the community would make the rounds of different homes to wish everyone a prosperous new year. In my family, it lasts just one day today, and all of the family gather at one of the aunts’ house for a feast that includes all of the Japanese delicacies that we seldom eat during the year. The aunts spend two full days preparing all of the wonderful foods that I’ve loved to eat since I was very little.
Following the old traditions, women do all the cooking and serving on New York’s Day and the men eat first. Something everyone looks forward to is the “sashimi,”or raw fish, which also includes octopus and raw oyster, served on “daikon,”shredded Japanese radish, and dipped in hot mustard or horseradish. Two other favorites are “inari”and “makizushi,”two types of sweet-flavored riceballs, the first wrapped in soybean skin, and the second in seaweed and stuffed with vegetables and bits of shrimp. And I can’t forget the delicious “teriaki”chicken, one platter barbecued and the other deboned, deep fried in butter, and cut into bite-sized pieces like Chicken McNuggets.
No Japanese feast is complete without vegetables, and on New Year’s Day we eat “nishimi,”a variety of cooked vegetables including Japanese mushrooms and potatoes, carrots, bamboo shoots, string beans, and kelp. We also have “kamabuko,”or fish cakes, and everyone has to eat a few black beans for luck for the new year. Finally, throughout the day the men are served hot “sake,”Japanese rice wine, in tiny cups, and they say “Banzai”each time they gulp it down. The men’s eating room gets noisier and the faces redder as the day progresses.
New Year’s Day is special traditional holiday for Japanese.
