私 の 正月

New Year's is one of the most important holidays in Japan! So instead of traveling to distant warmer lands, or heading to the mountains for snow, I decided to spend this New Year's with my adopted Japanese family--who graciously invited me! Thank you, it was so much fun!!

The first day after leaving the cold dark depths of Toyama was the most beautiful day I've seen in months! The sun was bright, the sky was crystal clear! Natsuki and I headed to Kamakura, the home of one of the biggest buddhas in Japan! We visited The Buddha, and even got to tour inside the statue, created about 800 years ago! We also toured a nearby temple over looking the Kamakura bay. And ate delicious soba.

New Year's celebrations revolve around FOOD! We ate and ate and ate! New Year's Eve lunch, I cooked burritos/quesadillas for the family. They were a hit. Last time I visited them I made tacos. So next time, I promise to cook a non-Mexican dish! Maybe Thai?

New Year's food is all symbolic! There is food to bring you wealth, health, smarts, long life, fertility, etc. I avoided the fish eggs, but otherwise it was all great!

Starting with dinner on New Year's Eve, we drank at every meal for 24 hours! None of us were ever really drunk, well, not really! But we sure did enjoy our champagne, wine, beer, sake, godiva liqueur, kahlua, etc! At one point we just stopped pouring drinks and just started taking swigs from the bottle! Mai...you are CRAZY!!!

After drinking most of the evening and ringing in the new year with the TV comedians, we all passed out and most of us slept late, getting up to another meal beautifully laid out on the table with more sake! Next to each plate was a chopstick holder with each of our names written in kanji. Being that I'm Scandahoovian, my name doesn't translate to kanji very well! But luckily, I was staying in a family with kanji experts! So, this is "Kirsten" in kanji. They told me the direct translation, but after all the sake, I forgot!

After stuffing ourselves and finishing off the sake and some beer, we geared up to visit the temple. Some people visit their temple starting at 12midnight. But you can go anytime on New Year's Day to pray and get good luck charms for the upcoming year! We took a train to a nearby temple and it was packed. I never saw the end of the line, we (the girls) decided to observe instead of participate. We looked at some smaller shrines, threw some coins, rang the bell and said our prayers. And I was presented with a New Year charm, I requested pink! I'm not a pink kinda girl. But it's supposed to bring me something great this year! (Now is the chance!)

The girls decided to walk home while dad stood in the shrine line. We drank a hot sake milky drink on the walk home. It was delicious! But I think it was just sake flavored, non-alcoholic!

To continue celebrating the New Year we headed to karaoke and sang to our hearts content while sipping more wine and other fruity alcoholic beverages! yum! Natsuki and I did a few great duets! And Mai and I are going to enter a bi-lingual karaoke contest one of these days!

In addition to great food, temples and family bonding at the karaoke parlor...there are endless New Year's decorations to be seen and admired! This is one of the decorations in their home. It's actually the back side of a paddle used in an anciet traditional Japanese game that's like badminton.

Baffy, the famous lab! Her photo appears in a 2006 Calendar of super cute labs in Japan! She is a cutie. But a real daddy's girl. She loves to curl up on her dad and fall asleep! It's the cutest! I tried to teach her some English, but she wasn't interested in becoming bilingual at this point in her life!

Tokyo Disneyland was next on the agenda. I have been to California's Disneyland twice as an elementary school student, but this was my first time to experience Disneyland Japan style. But really, the only thing Japanese about it, was Minnie and Mickey dressed up in kimono for New Year's. And there was some Japanese food. And all the gift shops were geared to the omiyage industry. And the all the guests were decked out in crazy Disney gear. So, it does have a different flavor and feel. But it was a little like stepping into America. English signs were EVERYWHERE! And a lot of the announcements were in English, some weren't even translated. It was my first time on a lot of the big kid rides!

Ayaka, Natsuki, Mai and I left the house before 7am, arrived before the gates opened at 8am. And left after the electric parade and fireworks just minutes before closing at 10pm. We arrived back home a little after 11pm. It was a LONG DAY! But so much fun. Luckily, Mai is a Disney expert and got us into everything! We never waited more than 30 minutes and that was during a holiday! Next time we are going to Disney Sea!! Apparently, you can drink there! ha ha ha!!

I have been hosted by the Chimura family several times now! It's time for the Chiba-ken urban dwellers to make their way to Toyama for a weekend of inaka craziness! I promise to make it a weekend you won't soon forget. There will be hotaruika, mochi, wakame, onsens, izikayas, karaoke...the possibilities are really endless!

But what I learned over the course of the holiday was, even a quiet calm suburban family has it's crazy moments! Thanks for including me!

Back to Toyama--the cold, the snow, the inaka craziness! I had a great vacation. I enjoyed my first Japanese New Year's with the crazy Chimura family. I'm looking forward to my next visit! Thank you!!