Merry Christmas/Happy New Year

Hello. It seems in the year after my first time in Japan that I forgot how much difficulty I have keeping a blog updated. I apologize for the delay in posting this. I meant to get one in before my break, but I never got around to it, so here we are. Without further ado, what I've been up to the past month or so.

Work at school proceeded much the same until the end of December. Then on the 22nd the teachers had the 忘年会, (bounenkai, literally the "forget the year meeting"). In Japan, this is usually the end of year office party at which the entire office drinks and eats to excess. However, last year a teacher in my prefecture apparently was arrested for drunk driving on the way home from his school's bounenkai, so this year the party was non-alcoholic. It was clear that some teachers were not very fond of this condition, but a good time was had by all regardless.

Then the 23rd was the Emperor's Birthday, and as that was a national holiday there was no school that day. The last day of the term was the 24th, Chirstmas Eve. The first half of the day went as usual, but the last two periods were taken up by the end of year ceremony. It was much like assemblies in the United States, except the students sat on the gym floor, they were not shushed once, and there was a good deal more bowing (Speakers bowed to the flag behind the podium every time they approached and left the stage and to the audience before and after
using the microphone).

Mt Fuji from Kofu, Yamanashi

After school, I went to visit a friend in Yamanashi Prefecture (about halfway between Tokyo and Nagoya, just north of Mt. Fuji). I spent Christmas there and visited some of the local attractions. The highlights are displayed below.

First, I had a chance to try my hand at some pottery. It was a lot of fun, but...

As you can tell from my first attempt in the foreground, I wasn't very good at it. I decided to keep that one, even though the woman who worked there tried to talk me out of it pointing out that it had a hole in it. I told her I planned to put change in it and she then suggested that I use a cheaper finish for it. Again, it was a lot of fun.

Next, I got a chance to make mochi. My friend is also an English teacher at a Japanese public school, and a coworker was kind enough to invite us to join her family in making the New Year's mochi, which is a tradition in Japan. Below is a picture of the traditional New Year's offering at a Shito Shirne.

It's a mandirin orange on top of two balls of mochi.

Mochi is essentially sticky rice mashed into a chewy mass. You make it by steaming rice, putting the rice in a huge bowl and smashing it repeatedly with a large mallet, pictured below.

Sadly, I forgot my camera, so here is a picture of someone else making it. My friend's coworker took pictures though, so maybe I'll be able to get my hands on some of those before too long. Regardless, it was hard work, but it was a lot of fun.

I also got a chance to visit some shrines in the area. We took a tour of some smaller shrines tucked away in small neighborhoods like the one below...

...and we also saw some larger ones like the one below. The tradition is to go to a shrine on New Year's Eve and pray for the new year. We went earlier in the day to be ahead of the rush, but we expected more people to be doing the same. Apparently people trying to avoid crowds go late rather than early.


So that was the end of 2010. I met Amelia in Tokyo on New Year's Day as she was returning from Hokkaido, the northernmost of the four main islands of Japan. Then we went back to Mito together and I showed her around here a couple days. Then, Firday the 7th was my first day back. In the morning, we had an year opening ceremony which was very similar to the year closing ceremony. That was followed by a three day weekend (yesterday was coming of age day, so everyone who turned 20 last year celebrated their new rights to buy alcohol and tobacco). and then the first normal day of the year was today.

And now I'm up to date. I'm sure I've left some things out that I will probably add sometime soon, but this is all for now.

あけましておめでとうございます！
akemmashite omedetou gozaimasu
Happy New Year