Saturday, January 06, 2007
Happy Late New Year
Happy New Year!
My new year's break has been peaceful and happy, for the most part. My wife and I visited her family for a New Year's lunch. We ate tons of osechi (and sushi and sashimi; there was also yakiniku, but I didn't eat any of that). My wife's uncle's family has a rabbit. I'm extremely allergic to rabbits, so within an hour, my nose was running like crazy. Other than that, I had a great time. The food was delicious and the people were interesting and friendly.
We also watched a few minutes of Kouhaku (the big New Year's Japanese song competition, which pits men against women), and also watched different parts of the world do New Year's countdowns on CNN.
Experiencing the New Year's holidays in Japan and watching other countries celebrate on TV, reminded me of how different Japan and the U.S. are in celebrating the New Year's holiday. For one thing, the New Year's holiday is much more important in Japan than in the U.S. In Japan, this holiday is filled with old traditions which have symbolic importance. For example, people carefully prepare osechi, eat toshikoshi soba, visit shrines and pray for good things in the New Year, etc. Young people look forward to nice cash gifts from their families and a lot of people still watch Kouhaku on TV (although this year, it wasn't very popular, I heard). In the U.S., people often spend New Year's eve at parties. The most important moment is the New Year's countdown, and the most important activity is drinking alcohol, especially champaigne (a huge number of police are on the streets during New Year's, to stop drunk drivers). There is also a popular idea that you should have a date on New Year's, and you should kiss your date at exactly 12:00 midnight (as is shown in the movie "When Harry Met Sally"--Japanese title: 恋人たちの予感; 見てみてください！).
I wish you all a peaceful and healthy 2007. See you soon!
John
P.S. nyo---n! I can't see your blog! Probably other people can't see it, either! I don't know the reason for the problem, but it's possible that you write something in kanji on the name of the your blog, or the name of an entry. This sometimes causes problems with Blogger. Please try to fix it. Thanks.
My new year's break has been peaceful and happy, for the most part. My wife and I visited her family for a New Year's lunch. We ate tons of osechi (and sushi and sashimi; there was also yakiniku, but I didn't eat any of that). My wife's uncle's family has a rabbit. I'm extremely allergic to rabbits, so within an hour, my nose was running like crazy. Other than that, I had a great time. The food was delicious and the people were interesting and friendly.
We also watched a few minutes of Kouhaku (the big New Year's Japanese song competition, which pits men against women), and also watched different parts of the world do New Year's countdowns on CNN.
Experiencing the New Year's holidays in Japan and watching other countries celebrate on TV, reminded me of how different Japan and the U.S. are in celebrating the New Year's holiday. For one thing, the New Year's holiday is much more important in Japan than in the U.S. In Japan, this holiday is filled with old traditions which have symbolic importance. For example, people carefully prepare osechi, eat toshikoshi soba, visit shrines and pray for good things in the New Year, etc. Young people look forward to nice cash gifts from their families and a lot of people still watch Kouhaku on TV (although this year, it wasn't very popular, I heard). In the U.S., people often spend New Year's eve at parties. The most important moment is the New Year's countdown, and the most important activity is drinking alcohol, especially champaigne (a huge number of police are on the streets during New Year's, to stop drunk drivers). There is also a popular idea that you should have a date on New Year's, and you should kiss your date at exactly 12:00 midnight (as is shown in the movie "When Harry Met Sally"--Japanese title: 恋人たちの予感; 見てみてください！).
I wish you all a peaceful and healthy 2007. See you soon!
John
P.S. nyo---n! I can't see your blog! Probably other people can't see it, either! I don't know the reason for the problem, but it's possible that you write something in kanji on the name of the your blog, or the name of an entry. This sometimes causes problems with Blogger. Please try to fix it. Thanks.
# posted by John @ 12:08 PM 
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Hi John,
Happy Lunar New Year, 1 day late. Thanks for visiting my students' blogs as well as my class blog. The 003 Blog, listed in your sidebar, is now defunct as that class has gone on to bigger and better things! Jennifer and Nazanin are still with me in UMEI 005, and our new class blog is http://005spr2007.blogspot.com. I hope you will visit it (student blog links are in the sidebar)!
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Happy Lunar New Year, 1 day late. Thanks for visiting my students' blogs as well as my class blog. The 003 Blog, listed in your sidebar, is now defunct as that class has gone on to bigger and better things! Jennifer and Nazanin are still with me in UMEI 005, and our new class blog is http://005spr2007.blogspot.com. I hope you will visit it (student blog links are in the sidebar)!
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