Happy New Year!

It's the Year of the Dragon! Sorry for the late post, I've been busy!

遅くなってしまってごめんなさい！

This was my third New Year in Japan, and this time I spent it traditional Japanese-style with the Yoshidas.

これは３回目日本ではお正月で、今年吉田家と一緒に日本的なお正月を過ごしました。

We flew to Osaka on the 30th December, and what an amazing view of Mt Fuji!

飛行機で大阪に行って、なんてすごいいい景色でした！

What better way to spend the final day of the year than under a kotatsu (table heater) playing cards and board games?
コタツで温めながらボードゲームと花札を楽しました!

Happy birthday Toshi! トシ君お誕生日おめでとう！

It is traditional to eat special long Soba (buckwheat noodles) on New Years Eve as they symbolise longevity.

長寿のためそばを食べました。

But after 2.5 years in Japan I still can't get the slurping thing right!　まだそばをスウことできません！

At midnight on New Years morning the family gathered in front of the kamidana, a small shrine in the house itself and prayed.to the god and ancestors for a good year in 2012.１２時になったらお祈りしました。

Then we went to the local shrine to pray and have some free amazake, sweet rice wine.

On New Years Day we enjoyed osechi, traditional New Years food, which Toshi's mother had stayed up all night preparing! All the different kinds of food have a meaning, for example the sweet black beans symbolise good health. You can learn more about Japanese New Years food and the meanings HERE
We also drank sake, rice wine, from gold dished with the Japanese Emperor's seal.
はじめてお節料理を食べました。お母さんが一所懸命作ってびっくりしました！料理がいろんな意味もあって面白かった。

 I was presented with chopsticks with my name in Chinese characters: 暮亜, meaning Asian sunset.

Toshi's mother taught me to make sushi (if memory serves, it was mackerel, one of my favourites).

お母さんから寿司の作り方を学びました。

 More relatives came to visit, including a very hilarious and loud 89 year old!
親戚が増えてきました！

On the last day in Osaka, we got up early to drive to Kyoto to visit Fushimi Inari, where the family's shrine is located. I went there with Cara and Laura two summers ago.

最後の日伏見稲荷大神に行きました。

 So many torii gates, and a fantastic view of Kyoto

Praying at the family shrine

Finally, while at the World's Largest Hot Springs Bath, which was amazing and I visited many baths from Asia including a Darjeeling Tea bath in Bali (see the English website) I was blessed by a New Years' Chinese Dragon, which touches you on the head (ouch!) to give you good luck!

Memories are Maid of This

Maid Cafes are a popular subculture in Japan, where young, cute Japanese maids serve lonely, stressed out businessmen calling them 'master', and acting as servents. The first Maid Cafe opened in Akihabara in 2001, but they have become so popular that you cannot escape the maids on every streetcorner handing out flyers for their cafes.

 A maid advertising our cafe, PoPoPure

Akihabara is known as 'Electric Town', and is where I bought my foreign laptop a couple of months ago. It is home to endless electronic, costume roleplay and figurine stores.

So of course where else than Akihabara to visit a Maid Cafe!!? Some cafes can be rather grim and dodgy, as my coworker Xor will tell you! But fortunately the Cafe, PoPoPure we randomly chose turned out to be light, comfortable and cute :D The maids welcomed us in extremely formal language saying Okaerinasaimase, goshujinsama 'welcome home Masters and Mistresses' and sat us at a tables.

Many normal-looking customers could be seen having dessert at this cafe, as well as a couple of strange  men who were enjoying watching the maids a little too much..

Photos of the maids and interior are forbidden, but here's a photo of my food:

Melon soda and green tea cake

We were served the food, but before we could eat it, we were taught a magic incantation to make our food 200% tastier:

"Oishikunare... moe, moe kyun!"

"To become more tasty... moe, moe kyun!"

This was performed while making heart shapes with our hands!

Moe is an Otaku (Japanese anime geek) word that means to have a love for cute, innocent girls.

I paid an additional fee to have a polaroid taken with the Maid, Karyo-chan who served us!

 

Some addidtional weird and wonderful sights from Akihabara:

A man dressed as a urinal with an interesting hat..

A woman scared of an inflatable beer bottle and a bunny boy. Fair enough.

A Most Japanese Weekend

hours in Japan: Food, Drink and Culture.

"Right now, I'm living abroad in Japan. My energy and money are spent... and people that I work with were involved in both. I'm Clare Dery, and today was the most Japanese day of my life."

Disclaimer: The following blog entry contains many images and videos filled with amazing contrasting traditional and modern Japanese elements. 

Click to proceed with caution.