Week 15 in Japan: New Years!

Over the last week it became 2014 and in Japan thats kind of a big deal. Lets talk about that :). On New Years eve I met up with a friend from South Korea Palgeum and hung out. It was great weather and it is a national holdiay so the town was lively with people who get a couple days off for New Years. One building in Akita that is like a city art museum had a things going on. Lots of various attractions mainly all aimed at young kids and also almost all being Bullet Train related activities. They had lots of train tracks. Trains you could build yourself, various toy trains you could ride, a blow up train that kids could go inside of and jump around. I think Japan has somewhat of a fascination with trains. New Years Eve night the city had an event that maybe 300 people came to. There was some various entertainment, free hot chocolate, and also fireworks at midnight. After the fireworks they gave out free mochi which I talked about a while back. Mochi is basically just a rice snack. It is a tradition in Japan to each Mochi on New Years Day and there are certain soba noodles you are supposed to eat on New Years Eve. I ate mochi but forgot about the noodles. After the city New Years Event me and 11 others went to a bar and had nomihodai until very late. After that was done Alina(Romanian), Linda(Cambodian), and I went to two of the shrines in Akita City. It is tradition to go to the shrines on New Years Day so there were lots of people there when we went around 6:00am but I think there are more people who go right after midnight. We got fortunes for our specific birthdays so that was cool. I'm not sure what kind of fortune I got though because the kanji were too difficult for me and my friends. I'll have somebody help me translate it later. We ended up seeing the first sunrise of the year which from what I hear has some significance as well so although it was cloudy it was nice to see. On New Years Day I didn't do too much. Mainly I slept, but I also tryed to buy grocerices to find that most all stores are closed. Luckly Mcdonalds was open, although it was a very long walk.
      On Thursday the 2nd I got together with a couple of my Korean friends Palgeum and Yunseok and a Japanese friend Teppei to hangout before Palgeum left for a trip to Tokyo. We ate some Korean ramen that was nice and spicy so that was cool. Then Yunseok gave me a haircut. My hair was getting long so I asked her to cut my hair. She had never cut hair before but I figured you can't go wrong with a free haircut. I kept saying not to worry and that I wasn't worried but I was kind of saying those things to help her relax and hopefully do a better job. Also I gave her no guidelines as to what kind of cut I wanted, my instructions were mainly just that I wanted it shorter. I was a little surprised to find it turned our really well. Over the days since the haircut lots of people are very surprised when I say I didn't go to a barber/hair salon. Hair cuts are kind of expensive in Japan so it was nice to save a little money and it was fun to have a friend cut my hair. We ended up going to get nomihodai on this night too. It was funny because we were inviting people starting at 1am but we still ended up having 6 people go so it was perfect. It was three people from China; Toka, Choukin, and Setuhi. Also me, Teppei, and Yunseok. Palgeum had to leave at 8am so she had to sleep. On Sunday the 5th Teppei, Yunseok, and I went to the Aeon mall to shop. When we returned we went to a used books/movies/cds store. The movies and cds were about what they would be in the U.S. but the books were very cheap. A lot of times just around a dollar for mint condition recent books. I think it is because they buy more books here but I'm not really sure. Finally we went to a curry restaurant called "Coco" which is actually the most common chain curry restaurant in Japan. They had levels of spice with 10 being the hottest. Me and my Korean friend Yunseok got level 10 and my Japanese friend got the normal version which is no level, just regular curry. It was really delicious but as it went on it got really spicy. I of course managaed to eat it but it got difficult towards the end. My Korean friend seemed to eat it with ease! Aside from the burning I had a little bit of eye irritation and a runny nose. But that's what makes it fun!
      Well that was some highlights of my week summed up in this blog. I'll add some pictures and some details behind the pictures as well. Thanks for reading!

 Here was one of the trains you could ride in basicaly a building of train related activities. I'm guessing it was because of New Years Eve but there are events of this nature fairly often. Kids activities in Japan are not uncommon.

 Me and my friend Palgum made two snowmen on New Years Eve. The snowmen had no faces, we plan on making better ones in the future. It really warm so it made them easy to make but literally seconds after taking pictures of them they fell down. It was crazy timing.

 I asked my friend Korean friend Palgum if there was anything she still wanted to before 2013 was over, she said Purikura or a photo booth thing haha. Good times.

 My friend Palugum again at the New Years Eve event. Instead of posing with the mascot guy she stole his umbrella, I managed to get a picture but my camera is not so great with motion shots. I'm not sure what the guy is but I think he might be the city mascot or something.

 It is hard to tell but they are actually on a stage and they were doing some entertainment before the countdown. Behind them you can see the countdown timer. It was made with lasers that were shot from quite a ways off.

 Here a picture of most of the friends who were at the New Years Event and went to the Izakaya/bar afterwards. Hikaru took the picture. In my hand is the rice snack 'mochi' that I was eating for the New Year.

 Here is a picture of where you get a birthday fortune. This is only up at New Years so it's kind of a special thing. It was 100 yen or about a dollar. You just stick your money in yourself. Lots of the honor system in Japan, but then again who would steal a fortune? Seems like bad luck to me.