And a Happy New Year

I owe you guys a New Year's story, so here it is.

Preperations started when we were still in school (before the winter vacation started). We all traded adresses and my friends gave me my teacher's addresses (how do they know??). I told Nakai Sensei I felt a little wierd going up to people and just asking them for their address. He laughed and we talked about a huge cultural difference - the American need for privacy opposed to the Japanese need for companionship. He said in his neighborhood, the neighborhood "leader" required everyone to write down their addresses, names, phone numbers, occupations, and any other "relevant information" in case of emergencies. Now everyone in the neighborhood has a copy of it. He said the school used to give out a directory with all past students' information until students started selling them to phone companies (haha!). What a difference! It's everywhere. My parents come into my room on whims. The houses are so close we can practically communicate with the across-the-street neighbors without leaving the living room couch. But I digress.

We exchanged adresses and then, on the last day of school before break, we took a few periods out and cleaned the school. The kids weren't really into it, so the school isn't as spick and span as it would be if it employed janitors. It's a nice sentiment in theory, but the reality is that the school is always a little musty and dirty because kids are in charge of cleaning. But hey, nobody would ever think to blow spitballs on the ceilings in a Japanese school, so it's not all bad. Shoot, I'm digressing again, aren't I?

We cleaned. Everybody had forgetting the year parties, where they drank away the year. My friends and I also had a party, but we drank melon soda instead. It was a yakiniku party, where the table was a grill and everybody put their favorite food onto the grill. Delicious. I love anything yaki (grilled). Afterwards, my friends and I went and did Puricura, of course. And then we went home around 10 or 11.

I still had kendo practice untill right before New Year's. On the 28th, we finally got out of kendo. In kendo, we also had a huge cleaning day. We spent the whole five hours of practice cleaning the windows, wiping the doors, mopping our floor, and putting new tape on the floor to mark the size of a match area. It was a very communal cleaning, and thus fun. It was sort of a bonding thing for the kendo club to have to work together to clean the gymn. Every took part, from the Sensei to the lowest rank (that'd be me...) and when we were finished we all sat back for a few minutes and just admired our work. Even the stern Sensei. We did a much more thorough job than the school did with their big cleaning. And, I noted with a perverse sense of satisfaction, the ping pong club on the other half of the job didn't do nearly as good of a job as we did.

So kendo let out and we vigourously started preperations at home. We made food. We cleaned. We did laundry (eh, Okaasan did laundry, that is...). We shopped. On Dec. 31, everyone was up at 8, doing the hard core cleaning. Okaasan woke me up and then sent me outside right away to help wash the outside of the house. I was thankful to them for including me. They were originally planning on letting me sleep in. I would have felt really wierd waking up at 10 to find everyone else had been working for a few hours. Around noon, Otoosan and I called it a day (we had been working together on the outside of the house) and went to the nearby bakery to purchase breakfast. I love this bakery. Japan is certainly no European country, but I'm in love with their breads. We bought more than enough for everyone than headed back and everyone sat down to a belated breakfast/lunch. After noon, most of the house was clean. I went and took care of my own room, but they did a big cleaing of it before I moved in, so I mostly just had to straighten my belongings and wipe everything down. Easy peesy. Afterwards, Okaasan, Otoosan, and I went shopping for the necessities - food. It was packed. We could barely move. We stood in line for two hours just for three little slices of egg. Omochi and fresh, moving fish and screams of "IRASSHAIMASEEEE!" were everywhere. A few times, my host parents and I got seperated in all the people. But it wasn't like either of us could turn around and walk back into the throngs of people. We finished the food shopping and went shopping for new clothes. I got new expensive underclothes, my host mom got new (probably expensive) slippers, and my host father got new pajamas. The idea is that the next morning is a completely different year, separate from all the grime and problems of the previous year. All of our clothes were washed, our laundry changed, our refrigerated stocked (at least, as stocked as they get for the Japanese), our toothpaste and shampoo replaced with new ones, and everything we could need was bought. I thought we were preparing for an air raid or something, the way they stocked up on stuff. Night came and we stopped cleaning and shopping and started celebrating. We ate a traditional New Year's Eve dinner of soba, which represents longevity of one's life, maybe. My host sister and I went to a shrine to pray to our ancestors. She said it would be packed. I was expecting something like what I had encountered that morning, where there was no turning back and you just had to keep moving. I was wrong. It was much much more crowded. I've never been a claustraphobic person before. In fact, you might say I find comfort in being with a lot of people. Oh man. I couldn't even move there were so many people. It took us about two hours to walk one block. Mostly, we just stood and waited, doing very little walking. It was thrilling to be with so many people, but on the other hand, it was a little panicky. I couldn't lift my arm without pushing people. And then if I wanted to put my hand back down I'd have to push them again. It was insane. Once we actually got into the shrine, it wasn't as bad. The shrine was pretty spacious so the people where more spread out. There were a lot, but it was manageable. I picked a really good fortune for this year. I'm going to have good studying and I have a good chance of falling in love. Suhweet. I asked my host sis who wrote them and she told me God. Wow. I got a fortune from God. We bought some yakisoba because it was so cold and yakisoba is warm. We praid to our ancestors. The process took about 15 minutes. I was baffled. "That's it?" I asked when she turned and started home. She laughed and asked me if I wanted to go back in and see a little more of the shrine. I said no, I was just a litle surprised. Two hour wait! Fifteen minutes! Ah well.

I had my shower/bath and went to bed.

On New Year's morning, I woke up at 10:00 (I went to bed at 2:30-ish the night before) and immediately got dressed and went downstairs. Right away, people started coming. We ate breakfast with eleven people and then automatically started preparing lunch. I spent the day laboring over New Year's cards, determined to write all the adresses in kanji. Once I got started, it wasn't so impossible. A lot of kanji repeats itself, which was a relief. Even so, it was very difficult and took the majority of my day. I sent out 24 cards and have recieved/expect to recieve the same amount in return. I also wrote personalized messages on each of them and was very proud of myself when I finished. Writing the adresses was the hardest part.

More people came by dinner time. We had so many people we had to use three tables. And there was food! A lot of food! We ate a feast and everyone talked and then we all took family portraits on the couch. It was sweet. Homey. Reminded me a bit of Christmas back at home. This one guy about 25 came in and went to sit with everyone. The adults turned him away and said he had to sit with the kids. He was offended, but I didn't think he should have been. The "adult table" consisted of people about 44 and over, while the "kid table" consisted of people ages 14-29. There were only two 14 year olds and a 16 year old. And me. And then everyone else at the kids table were adults (aged 20 or over). Anyways, it was a good time and now Japan's a lot heavier because of all the food we ate.

Everyone left and we cleaned up and then slept. The next day, still vaguely part of the holidays, we went to my host parents' parents' grave and paid our respects. It was rather far (about two hours there and back) and took up the majority of the day. We still ate traditional New Year's foods. And yesterday I went shopping and got some awesome sales. This time of the year is apparently always littered with sales because kids get New Year's money on New Years. I got about $46 from my parents and $27 from my brother. That was nice. I spent it all, but now finally have some really warm clothes for the winter. Hehe, I still haven't touched this month's allowance. Yes!

Yesterday evening, I went to another party for Rotaract students, which was a lot of fun. The person who was hosting it's parents own a popular chain of bakeries, so it was a bread party, kind of. Lots of fun.

We got home at two and I zonked out. This morning, I had a normal breakfast for the first time since the 29th. The New Year's vacation is coming to a close. Tomorrow, I have kendo practice again and Tuesday, I have school. My host father bought me a brand new, really annoying bell alarm clock for the occasion! All right!