Snow on New Years Day

Hope you've all been enjoying the summer weather!  It's been quite cold here, but it was fun to have snow on New Years day!  (If you can't see the snow in the photo - look closer!  There was a cool photo of Dan in the snow with decent coverage of his hair, beard, jumper, but he won't let me post it.  He might let me email it, if you really want to see). 

I ended up getting the last week off work - not quite sure how that happened - but not complaining.  While we spent a bit of time at home relaxing and taking it easy, we also did a few little trips and investigated some places that visitors might like to check out.  

So, what is New Years like in Japan?

New Years Eve seems to be the lesser of the days - with people preparing for New Years day.  There were fireworks, but we couldn't see them from our apartment, only hear them.  Apparently fireworks is more of a summer thing though.  Going to the temple/shrine is very important.  Many people line up and enter at midnight.  But it seems anytime in the New Year period is ok. All the shrines/temples have paper lanterns strung around.  While many people asked if I had been to the shrine, they were surprised when I said 'no', but when I asked them, they said they were too busy...   

You don't give out Christmas cards in Japan, but New Years cards.  These all appear in your letterbox New Years morning.  They're like postcards, and generally all typed in Japanese, including names.  So, while I got a handful, I can only read half.  I will take them to work with me tomorrow and try and find someone who can translate them and tell me if I need to do something special (like thank you cards).  New customs are all very confusing!  

On New Years Day we went to my boss' place for 

a traditional Japanese New Years lunch.  The highlight was probably waiting for trains in the snow!  But we were privileged to be invited and included in a special family time.  All the traditional foods had special meanings  - prawns for long life (so that you live to be so old that yo

ur back is stooped like a prawn's back), fish eggs (my favourite!) for fertility, black beans for energy (yes, Daniel ate some of them!), smoked fish for men so they can be strong for working in the rice paddies... 

My boss is a lovely lady who is very interested in cultural exchange.  She often helps us understand Japanese culture and is always interested in our culture.  So as part of this she cooked 'natto' (very sticky fermented soy beans) and asked her friend to prepare a traditional tea ceremony for us.  Japanese people always want to know if I've tried natto and if I like it. Apparently it is very good for you, but considered as one of the foods that foreigners never like, (most kids don't like it either!).  Most women say that they ate it when they were pregnant, but no-one ever seems to say that they like it.  Well, I've now tried it, not over-keen on it, but can eat it.  

I'm back to work tomorrow, but I'm not doing much until Thursday when the kids go back to school.  

That's about as interesting as it's been - apart from trying to decipher the holiday bus timetable, reading and watching StarGate!  It has also been very nice to sleep in.  It's going to be very difficult to pry myself out of bed tomorrow morning at 6:30 in the cold and the dark.  

If you're bored, I added some photos to my photo page.   (The link is on the right hand side of this page).