New Year's 2009!

One of the traditions for New Years in Japan is for children to go stay at their parents' houses. My host family went to stay at my host Dad's Dad's house. There wasn't enough room for me there, so I went to Iliana's house for a few days. I think my host family felt a little bad for sending me off during the big family holiday of the year, but I didn't mind. And I had a really fun time at Iliana's house.

I went there on the morning of December 30. I wanted to go for a run before I went there, but Iliana insisted that I wait until I get there and then we could go together. So I did. I practically forced her out the door, but I really needed to go for a run. And she swore she wanted to the night before. We ended up running like 2K (that's 1.2 miles, Dad) in like 40 minutes. Which really means we walked most of it, but we had fun with it. I couldn't get Iliana to go again the rest of the stay. I am so out of shape again. I will be happy to get back to a normal schedule with school and running every day.

Anyway, that afternoon we went shopping together. I did end up getting a sweater to wear the next day, which was good. They surprised me and told me I was going to stay a day longer than I had packed for after I got there. Luckily, I had packed extra underwear. :) Then after dinner we played wii with her host family on their 65 inch TV and chatted with her host sisters and brother-in-law. I really love her host family. I hope my host sister in my next family is like her's are.

Me reading a book in Japanese to Himari-chan. Iliana's host niece. Oh, and that's my new sweater.


New Years Eve was fun. We really didn't do much, but it was nice. A lot like the ones back home. :D Except once it got to midnight, Dad didn't send us to bed. hahaha We played wii, watched some random, but really really funny show on TV, and watched the countdown. YAY, IT'S 2009! After that, at about 12:15 we walked to the temple nearby. We met up with some of Iliana's host sister's friends, too. At the temple we stood in a line about a million people (for real it was one of the longest lines I have ever been in) to throw our five yen coin (it's lucky to do it here) into the money thing and clap twice and bow. I tried to get a picture of it, but I looked at the camera in the first one and Iliana got annoyed and left just as he was taking the second one. haha. We got home at like 2 and then went to bed.

Iliana walking away...


We got up pretty early the next morning for the family breakfast. Its was osechiryori. Like a really big obento box. Iliana's host mom had this one ordered from a famous restaurant in Osaka. She had to pre-order it over a month in advance! But it was good. Most of it. I didn't try everything, because there were like 75 different things in it. For dinner we went to a family karaoke with Iliana's host sister, brother-in-law, niece, and their friends. That was fun. We did get to hear a lot of kiddie songs and see a whole salad AND a cup of orange juice hit the floor. Well, the salad landed on the bench for the most part. Oh, the other thing I did that day was watch The Chronicles of Narnia on TV in Japanese. That was actually really fun. I want to watch other movies I've seen already in Japanese now. Maybe I'll ask my host mom if she wants to sometime...

Breakfast... part of it. I still prefer sweet food at breakfast, but that's just not how they do things in Japan.


And of course I got to talk to Dad and Benjamin and Christy as they had their New Year's Eve party. I was pretty jealous of the monkey bread Benjamin had made. Iliana's host family kept saying how cute my family was. And how nice Daddy is. :D They're right.

January 2 was a fun day. Iliana's host mom had arranged for us to get dressed in Kimonos. A lady from Iliana's host club, who is friends with her host mom also came over with a lady who teaches traditional japanese things. It took all 3 of them to get us dressed. My kimono had 14 pieces to it! And it takes a professional to tie the obi in the back. It was a really good experience. We went to the temple nearby and rung the bell. I'm not really sure what the point of it was for, but it was nice. Everyone really stared at me because I was wearing a kimono. That was fun. Iliana didn't get quite as many stares because she has black hair and can pass for a Japanese person if you just glance. And she's short.

Getting dressed only took like an hour... that's the teacher by me.

Bun-chan, Iliana, Tomo-chan, Abbey, and Iliana's host father in front. I never realized that I look this tall... I'm a GIANT!

Iliana and I at the temple. Those ropes are attached to bells.

Abbey, Iliana, and Himari-chan


Wearing the kimono was fun. I always liked getting dressed up. And the teacher also did our hair. :D The kimono was quite snug and I'm not saying I'd want to wear one every day, but it was fun. After we got out of them, Iliana and I went up to her room and had some downtime. At about 4:45 we were just watching TV and I was almost sleeping when her mom knocks on the door...

"Do you want to go to Disneyland?"
"What?" (really confused because I was almost sleeping and it was in Japanese and it just sounded too good to be true.)
"Disney. Do you want to go?"
"Right now?!"
"Yes!"
"Disneyland?! Really?! Yeah, we want to go!!!!"
"Okay, hurry up. You are leaving in like 10 minutes. Dress warm. It's cold."
"Yay! Ahh, my hair!" (haha. I had taken it out of the up-do with the kimono and hadn't done anything with it yet. The plan had been to go to dinner at 7 at a pasta place.)

So Iliana and I very quickly got changed into warmer clothes and did our hair. We then piled into the car with her sister, brother-in-law and their friends and their kids and we were off to Disneyland! It took just over an hour to get there, so it really isn't too far away. We, well Iliana's family, paid the "after 6" rate so it was cheaper to get in. We arrived around 6:30, went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, watched the big parade with all the Disney characters, went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and then went one the 3-D movie ride about the Honey, I shrunk the Kids movies. After that we had dinner, took some pictures in front of the castle, looked in the shops, and came home. :D It was a really fun little trip. I do still want to go back again though. I think maybe my host club is thinking of taking me there too, because I had so much fun at Disney Sea. So I hope they do. I didn't really see much of the park or go on the awesome rides like Space Mountain. It was lots of fun going with Iliana's host family, though.

Himari-chan and I in front of Tokyo's Disneyland!

Himari-chan, Tomo-chan, Iliana, Abbey, and Tomo-chan's friends. Tomo-chan's husband was taking the picture and that was everyone.


The next morning (January 3) I came back to my apartment. I had such a nice time with Iliana and her host family. It was a really fun way to spend New Year's.

Random pictures:

All of us in line at the temple. Except Tomo-chan's husband, who is taking the picture.

Rubbing the lucky cow on New Year's Day early morning. It's extra lucky this year because it is the year of the cow!