Happy New Year

Happy New Years!

From Japan

Fire, fire!  Hahahahahahaha!  (They're all drunk)

In Japan, New Years is considered a more important day than Christmas.  It's pretty strange to do more for New Years than for Christmas, trust me.  Especially if you grew up in a western society.

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Word of the Post:

忘 年会 (Bounenkai) - New years is important in Japan for a reason.  To end a year means to forget the mistakes and the sad times of the year and to start over.  For that reason, Japanese often have a party called the "bounenkai".  It means a party to forget.

新年会 (Shinnenkai) - On the other hand, the Japanese also party at the start of the year.  This is to celebrate the beginning of the year and to hope for a good one.

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For the new years I was invited by Elise to go with her and her German friends, and any other people that they know (all of whom are also studying in Japan, just in different areas than we are.) to celebrate.



We first went to an all you can drink bar.


Sorry for the blurry shot!  :(  The entrance.

The floor directly below us.  (Looks more like a restaurant.


Proof that this place is three stories high.  Hahaha, stairs.


Our table.  I was located at the corner in the back.  This is facing the entrance.


Picture of Elise, with our waiter in the back.

Anyways, I'm not much of a drinker, and I really didn't want to order the all-you-can-drink menu.  Unfortunately, I had no choice if I didn't want to cause problems for everyone else.  It's one of those all-or-none deals, where everyone has to order it so that they can keep track of it.  So I ended up paying for the all you can drink.  It was about 2000 yen, for those interested in the price.

I realized quite late that just because it's all-you-can-drink, doesn't mean that alcohol is all they have.  I sat there with a glass of wine that I was casually sipping for around an hour (before giving it to Elise) until I reread the menu and saw that they had Coca Cola on the all you can drink menu.  After that, all I drank was soda.

It really isn't worth it if you only drink water, and it's still not quite worth it with soda, but, I had enough soda to stain my teeth and take a pee three times while we were there.  How's that for getting my money's worth?  Mwahaha.

Anyways, for dinner, I ordered a nice dish for a decent price.  It was curry and rice, with half of a hard boiled egg.


It's not really much, I know, but it was 280 yen or so.


This was given because it's New Years, or so I believe.  All I know is we did not pay for it.  I believe we got two plates of sushi.


For New Years, we drink something called "Plum Sake."  It's much sweeter than normal alcohol, and I actually found myself enjoying it.  Yes, that's my ipod on the table.

Finally, HAPPY NEW YEAR!


With Takumi, the Japanese boy shouting the loudest, happily shaking his fists at the television.

After that, everyone got drunk really quickly.  I got to watch it all over my glass of Coca Cola, hahaha.

Then, to make things even more amusing for me, a group of drunk people came over to our table, and they got introduced to our little group of drunk friends.  Of course, what better way to do it than to "nonde, nonde, nonde." (To drink it all down).

It quickly dissolved into silly little jokes, performed by drunk members in slurred Japanese.


Pooose.  Silly people.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.  Hahahahaha.

Finally, it was time to leave for the shrine (the thing I was most looking forward to for the whole New Years).
Before we got anywhere, though, first, we had to light the one firework (? It really isn't a firework, I just don't know what it's called) that we had.

The shrine that we went to is apparently one of the most visited shrines on New Years day.  With the crowd that we waited in, I'm pretty sure it is true too.

It's called the Meiji Shingu.








Look at that crowd, and we're nowhere near the shrine!


Finally at half way, looking back at where we came from.......dang...that's scary.


Two hours later, we can finally start to see the entrance!



So we continue to walk and wait, walk and wait.  We'll make it eventually.




That's it!  The entrance!  Finally, at around 4:30 AM we can see the entrance.  (Somewhere around this time, I lost the papers that I stuffed under my jacket for safe-keeping.)


Still not in yet.  It's a good picture though.


And at least we're not back there...


Finally in!  You see the strangely bright surroundings, and all the people glowing white?  It's the rapture!  Just kidding.


All that waiting was to come here, toss money to the ground, and pray.



Goaaaaallll.

After finally getting to the temple, tossing money in, and praying.  I snapped the picture above, and shoved my way out of the mass of pushing bodies.

Along the way, we ended up losing almost everyone in the group.  I just barely was able to stick with Elise.  Elise and I took our time shopping for some charms and other items.

I bought two love charms, and a holy arrow.  Elise bought two love charms as well.

After, we walked around the significantly less crowded area until we finally spotted our group near the exit.  At which point, we left.

Most of the group decided to part ways at that time.  A few of us decided it would be nice to see the sunrise (unfortunately, we didn't get to see it.)

Along the way, we went to Tokyo tower:



Where the line was so massive, that we decided to try our luck finding a different spot to see the sunrise.  It was going to rise in a few minutes anyways.  There was no way we were going to be able to get to the top in time.

We ended our journey at a nearby temple that Takumi told us about.  He was much more sober by the time we got here.　　It was also here that we waited for the sun to rise.  Much to our disappointment, we couldn't see it with all the buildings that ended up being in our way.

And finally, our trip was done.  All that was left was getting to the train station so that Elise and I could take our 2 hour trip back to Reitaku, and sleep the morning away.

Happy New Year In Japan. 2012.

またね。。。