Why is it that we always clean our houses before guests come to visit? If you're like me, it takes guests to prompt me to give things a shine. It just goes to show how low our standards for ourselves really are.
But it also shows that we hold guests in high regard, or at least high enough that we don't want to reveal to them the inner slobs we really are. It is this general reluctance to clean that I feel is behind the O-soji, or as I prefer to call it Oh! Soji, in Japan.
Oh! Soji is a dedicated time for once a year "big cleaning" of the house. It is carried out in the days before New Year's. This is Japan's way of bringing up the collective standard in a harmonious, "radio taiso" kinda way. C'mon, altogether now: Let's clean!