CITY ARTS : Little Tokyo Welcomes New Year

If you don’t relish the idea of spending Saturday in front of the TV watching a parade and football, come celebrate New Year’s Day the Japanese way--with food, rice pounding, and cultural crafts and games--at the New Otani Hotel in Little Tokyo.

New Year’s Day is one of Japan’s biggest holidays, a time to reflect on the past and look optimistically at the future. Religious ceremonies are conducted and special foods, such as noodles and mochi (gooey rice cakes), are eaten in hopes of a long and prosperous life.

But that’s not to say the celebrations are staid and dull. During the opening ceremony at 11 a.m. in the hotel’s third-floor garden, a lively taiko drum show by the Zendeko children’s group will pave the way for the kagami wari (the ceremonial breaking of a barrel of sake ) and a mochitsuki (pounding of rice into a gooey consistency for rice cakes).

Samples of sake (rice wine) and mochi will be served to the audience.

From noon to 3 p.m., visitors will be able to view and participate in demonstrations of the Japanese tea ceremony, calligraphy, kimono-dressing, flower-arranging, badminton, the board game go , which is similar to checkers but more complex, and origami paper folding art.

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New Year’s Day festivities at the New Otani Hotel, 120 S. Los Angeles St., 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Most demonstrations are free; food sold at stands and in the hotel’s restaurant. (213) 629-1200.