Admittedly I let another month slip by before I posted, but to be fair, there was nothing too exciting going on until the last couple of weeks. So I'm going to post about Christmas and New Years!
Christmas Lights Everywhere!
Generally, in Japan, Christmas was imported as a commercial ploy to get people to buy more stuff. It's considered a couple's holiday, and thus the nearer Christmas draws, the more couples you see wandering hand in hand. There's no religious association with it all. In terms of families, they don't really exchange presents (although sometimes children will receive gifts from parents) and they generally stay home and eat, of all things, Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Yes, that's right, I said Kentucky Fried Chicken. Commercials and posters all over the place for KFC advertise the General in a Christmas costume and families enjoying a Christmas dinner of fried chicken...which is very strange to me. Needless to say, I really missed the general atmosphere of Christmas that you get in the States. There was no shopping for gifts, no anticipation of Christmas morning...it was a little bit depressing.
One thing that was not lacking was definitely Christmas lights. They were EVERYWHERE! I think there were more Christmas lights in public places here than in the States. Here are some shots of decorations:
A decoration at Mishima Station and a light-up in Harajuku, Tokyo. (Both taken with my Phone camera...sorry for the bad quality D; )
Gotenba
On Christmas Eve and on December 6 my friends and I went to Gotenba, a nearby town closer to Mt. Fuji which is famous for it's annual illumination. There they also have a hotspring hotel and other things, but for this event, since it's only a 40 minute bus ride, we went for an evening both times. There was lots of Christmas lights and delicious (expensive) food, and even a lazer light and fountain show. Very cool.
(Some of these pictures were taken with my phone again...please bear with me!)
The lazer show:
Then, for Christmas day, we went to Yokohama, a port city right nearby Tokyo (only about 25 min by train) where we saw this lovely Christmas tree at Bay Quarter, a giant shopping district:
In Yokohama, we ate at this really good (although a bit expensive) Hawaiian restaurant, where I got Chinese noodles. o_O;
Also, by the way, Yokohama looks like this by day:
It reminds me a bit of home in good ol' Florida. :)
So that was my Christmas! Not very Christmas-y, but it makes me look forward to next Christmas all the more! ;)
New Year's!
New Year's in Japan is all about going to the local shrine or temple and making a wish for the new year. We international students did it our way first, and then we did it the Japanese way!
First we started with a potluck dinner and a mini-party.
Then we watched a movie and other things, and then shortly before midnight we went to Mishima Taisha (Mishima Grand Shrine), which was far more packed than any other time I had ever seen it.
There was a bonfire so people could burn things that could bring them bad luck, including poor fortunes they received:
There were also lots and lots of food stalls:
It was extremely cold (maybe low 30s?) so we went home after giving our wish to the shrine god, and then later, at 6:00 we got up to watch the first sunrise, which we saw from the 7th floor of our building.
And then we proceeded to the shrine! Once again to pray to the gods, and then to get our fortune and write our wishes on the wooden blocks that get hung up in Shrine. My fortune read uncertain luck, so I tied it up on the fence below to avoid bringing it home with me.
And then, our first view of Mt. Fuji of the New Year (albeit a bit too modernized view):
And finally, there was a fantastic sunset view from my window this evening, topping of the day in a very majestic fashion:
With that, I think this year is going to be a really wonderful year.
Happy New Year everybody!!
It reminds me a bit of home in good ol' Florida. :)
We also went to Chinatown! (Talk about conflicting themes...eating Chinese food in a Hawaiiwan restaurant in Yokohama and then going to Chinatown of Yokohama, all on Christmas day!) We ate giant Nikuman (steamed meat buns), moon cake (traditional Chinese pastries typically served at the Moon Viewing festival in October), some soupy dumplings recommended to us by our Chinese friend, and sesame red bean balls. We also drunk bubble tea! All delicious delicacies. I was satisfied.
Above right: mooncake.
Above right: mooncake.
New Year's!
New Year's in Japan is all about going to the local shrine or temple and making a wish for the new year. We international students did it our way first, and then we did it the Japanese way!
First we started with a potluck dinner and a mini-party.
Then we watched a movie and other things, and then shortly before midnight we went to Mishima Taisha (Mishima Grand Shrine), which was far more packed than any other time I had ever seen it.
There was a bonfire so people could burn things that could bring them bad luck, including poor fortunes they received:
There were also lots and lots of food stalls:
It was extremely cold (maybe low 30s?) so we went home after giving our wish to the shrine god, and then later, at 6:00 we got up to watch the first sunrise, which we saw from the 7th floor of our building.
And then we proceeded to the shrine! Once again to pray to the gods, and then to get our fortune and write our wishes on the wooden blocks that get hung up in Shrine. My fortune read uncertain luck, so I tied it up on the fence below to avoid bringing it home with me.
And then, our first view of Mt. Fuji of the New Year (albeit a bit too modernized view):
And finally, there was a fantastic sunset view from my window this evening, topping of the day in a very majestic fashion:
With that, I think this year is going to be a really wonderful year.
Happy New Year everybody!!
Awesome pics :D Thanks for them!
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