New Year....

For the Japanese, January 1st is their New Year, and it meant a lot to them. I experienced it myself over there with my host family, and am really lucky to have such host parents which are quite tradition, which they still practice their traditions, where most modern family don't.

We had a short tea ceremony before breakfast. Which meant the arrival of New Year, Health and prosperous. Then the breakfast. i dont have much photos, coz, my camera's memory was full..lame of me for not thinking of bringing a pen drive. Which i realize it on the plane later..Anyway, i do have the 'washed-out' ones with me, given by them. I am sooo silly.



the 'bentou' on the table was delivered to the house early in the morning, consist of all kind of weird food, small, and most of it were unrecognizable. Haha...even otousan cant tell.

the 3 sets of bentou is called 'osechi ryouri' -御節料理。well, each layer has their own meaning.
those who are interested to know further details, go wiki!

After the breakfast, japanese will usually dressed in kimono ( for the more traditional ones), and go to their respective temple--jinja,神社.




after saying their prayers, they will go for omikuji,おみくじ。which is the fortune telling process for the new year. where u get a small piece of paper, sort of like those we got in chinese temples after shaking the bundle of sticks in a container. but differently, i just randomly pick the folded piece up from a basket. erm...i forgot what i got though..haha.. and there is also omamori,お守り --u can call it luck charm..


お守り

but trust me, its not cheap.

but almost everybody got themselves one there haha....

erm....i not quite sure after visitin the shrines what usual japanese ppl do, but that day we went straight home, went out for walks, and had curry for dinner--by me!! haha...^^

haha...this year, for year end, i went back to my home town in johor. really relaxing, went to waterfall with brothers and cousins and fool around like kids lol....long time never play till so siao dy....quite a nice way to end a year too...haha...


by the way---

akemashite omedetou !!
あけまして　おめでとう！！

means--HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!

**PS: my posts on youth exchange are not finish yet....er...soon to..will finish it...not for readers, but for my self-record...haha..those who are interested can refer to labels with youth exchange jp, not interested? jump la...