Akimashite Omedeto Gozaimasu!

That means Happy New Year. We did it Japanese style, and Davis-style.

This is a decoration that one hangs on one's door to protect your house as the year turns over. I think we get to burn it on the 6th or 7th.















New Year's Eve here is not like other NYE celebrations, not surprisingly. Here is a description from japan-guide.com, if you want it: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2064.html

We, being Americans, wanted to see the Countdown and fireworks, so we left our house after a quick Fuji meal, around 9:30 PM, and headed into Yokohama proper. The trains run all night on New Year's Eve, when normally they would stop before midnightish.








Grocery-store NYE dinner













The train's temporary schedule






We walked around the area, there were some people milling around. It was cold.








36 kinds of American Muffin













Engrish
























Cool ship, with CosmoClock in the background













It says Happy New Year, but I couldn't get a wide enough angle

















Pretty blue tree lights















D was appeased with some caramel corn








We headed for Oosanbashi Pier, where we would have a good view of the CosmoClock (giant ferris wheel) and hopefully some fireworks.















The kids were super crabby by now, because it was really cold and we'd been walking around for an hour.















The Moment was rather anti-climactic, honestly. One guy, ONE, picked up the countdown at 4, and he and Jeff did 'yon, san, ni, ichi' together, rather quietly. There was a nearly whispered Happy New Year and some boat horns went off. The fireworks were on the other side of the CosmoClock, in CosmoWorld, so it really just looked like someone was blowing up the ferris wheel. It's also pretty impossible to get a decent shot of a night scene without a tripod, so this is as good as I could get.















By this time, tho, Jeff and I had polished off a bottle of shochu that Jeff had thought was sake when he bought it, so we didn't care. Then we popped open the champagne and drank that. The kids seemed to cheer up almost instantly after midnight struck, so we counted that as a good omen for the new year. We walked back through the underside of the pier, where it was heated (had we only considered this before!). Some chick was singing before a really sedate crowd, and there was a cool model of a ship.





























On the other side, we took turns racing up the walls that beg to be a skatepark, and then noticed a bunch of other people had started doing it, too. One guy really bit it on the way down, and totally face-planted. He was OK, so it was hilarious. The champagne helped.

Walking back to the train, I spotted a festively-dressed cat giving some new year love to pedestrians. The train was failry crowded, but not too bad.

D and his new DS

When we got off at Myorenji, we had enough high-spirits to walk home rather than try to find a taxi. The champagne helped here, too. The kids passed out almost as soon as their heads hit the pillows, which is not surprising, considering it was almost 2am.

On New Year's Day, we all slept in and did pretty much nothing all day, which is exaclty what you're supposed to do on New Year's Day. We did eat some soba noodles, which you do because the long noodles symbolize long life, good luck, etc.

Macky picked us up on the 2nd to take us to Yasakuni Shrine for the New Year's good luck visit. Yasakuni (literally "peaceful nation shrine") is a Shinto shrine located in Tokyo, Japan, dedicated to the spirits of soldiers and others who died fighting on behalf of the Japanese emperor. There is come controversy associated with this shrine, apparently. See here for more info on that.

Macky gave the boys otoshidama, traditional gifts of money for kids.

Some sort of 'right-wing' propaganda that Macky apparently objects to

Shrine entrance

It was super-crowded, as expected, with many booths selling food and the usual festival trinkets.

Traditional Happy New Year sake toast by Macky

Sake vendors

Wall o sake

Honey treats of some kind

Hot dogs that were required to get to the cotton candy

Fish-on-a-stick from pure river water.

Dudes eating in the chicken tent

Traditional New Year's decoration. Pretty.

Giant bags of Pokemon cotton candy

D really likes his cotton candy

You can eat it with chopsticks, apparently

Weird drink that the kids love. You open it by popping a marble down into the bottle, which makes it fizz, I guess. Tastes like cream soda.

Critters made of gingko nuts

Stuffed animal pelts?

Stuffed animals heads? Poor things.

Hot pepper seasoning in cool bottles

Me and some good-luck creature. I gave his handler/cohort some yen and had my picture taken.

What's a holiday festival without a performing monkey?

Family shot

The torii

The real reason for visiting the shrine. You throw some yen into a collection box (due to the crowd, there was a huge net because people were throwing their yen from way back, over the heads in front of them), bow twice, clap twice to get the gods' attention, and make your prayer/wish for the new year. The guard is there to keep anyone from entering the shrine itself, but apparently you can buy your way in closer with a sizable donation.

There was a WWII memorial museum on the temple grounds.

Brotherly love in action: D shooting M's head off with a WWII cannon

Statue of a kamikaze pilot. Many brave suicide bombers died for their emperor. Not sure how I feel about it, other than sad.

Happy New Year from the Howitzer

Train.

Zero fighter plane

On a prettier note, there was also an exhibit of ikebana, the traditional art of flower-arranging.

A couple of my favorites:

Girl in a kimono

My favorite subject: Old vs New Japan

2007 is the Year of the Boar. This is MY sign, so should be an auspicious year for me. I bought a mini version of this guy to hang on my wall. I could've written a wish in it and left it at the temple for granting, but I wanted to keep it.

Wall o' Boars. Each shrine in Japan has it's own version, and they are all represented here.

D won an airgun in a game. I am not so thrilled. The BBs have been confiscated.

Amazaki: hot, thick, sweet sake, traditional for New Year's. Comforting on a chilly day.

Final family shot, with Macky

Macky and Jeff

Treats shaped like pigeon eggs.

Bigger egg-shaped treats. We bought these to take to Toru's for dessert

More treats

After our visit to the shrine, we went to Toru/Motoko/Kyotoro's house for a New Year's meal.

Cool shot of the Tokyo Tower on the way. It is meant to resemble The Eiffel Tower.

Toru and family prepared a wonderful meal, and we were priviledged to be invited. All kinds of traditional New Year's foods and lots of sake, wine, and shochu. I need to start a crusade to get the Japanese to stop chilling their red wine, but it was good anyway.

Buzz Buzz Wine. Cotes du Rhone.

Motoko.

The feast

Toru is The Sake Master.

The sake selection. We worked our way through quite a lot of it.

Obviously.

Yummy soup. Pork?

New Year's mochi, rice cakes.

Giant shrimp, just for me and Jeff.

Egg cake. Pretty tasty, much more than expected.

Stand By Your Man. Or recline, whatever. Macky needed a nap.

D with a realistic gun model, complete with model bullets. Scary.

Me with the gun. Also scary.

Toru with the gun.

M and Kyotoro having a sword fight. I, after much sake, ill-advisedly had a sword fight with M. He whacked me next to my eye, raising a lump. Maybe I'll have a scar to match the one on the other side from when D threw a rock at my head.

The kids were having such fun that Toru offered to keep them overnight. He sent me these pictures from the park the next day:

Thanks to Macky, Tai-chan, Toru, Motoko, Kyotoro, and my family for a memorable New Year's. I think 2007 is going to be great. I hope the same for all of you! Happy New Year!