December 30 - January 10 (Mon-Fri) - Shinnen Akemashite Omedetou - Happy New Year!

Monday: It was a beautiful day. I worked out, did accounting, worked, then spent the rest of the day in leisure.

Tuesday: In the morning I went to Kaori’s to spent the New Year with her and her family. An important New Year’s tradition is… cleaning! So I helped out cleaning the windows, lucky for us it was a relatively warm day. I was richly rewarded with delicious home-cooked meals (and good company). 

I also got to help (or trail along) with the decorations of kagami-mochi (mirror-white rice cakes) and mikan (oranges) throughout the house.

That evening I played a game with the family. This is otoshi-daruma. (Another pun: otoshi means falling, toshi is year.)

With the little hammer, you try to knock out the blocks on the bottom without disturbing the Daruma head. This is my first great victory at 3 blocks of 4. I went on to successfully complete the mission another 3 times.

I stayed up until midnight. Mostly. 

Wednesday: So Happy New Year! We slept late and were in no hurry to go anywhere. 

I ate a lovely breakfast.

All of these foods have some significance. The beans, mame, have something to do with working hard; the black rolled thing is konbu and it's a pun on the word 'yorokobu' (delighted), and I forget if there are any more I know. Most Japanese people don't know most of it, but you can read some on Wikipedia. 

I went to Hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year. Clap, ring the bell, throw a coin, make a wish.

This is a popular new year decoration.

That night Kaori’s sister and family came over and we ate a lot of sushi and sashimi and watched TV, like a show where people(contestants?) tried to guess which objects in a room were real, and which were made of chocolate. 

Thursday: After a nice morning, Kaori and I parted ways (for now) and I returned to my apartment to do… something I’m sure. Cleaning and such ^^

Friday: I ate this green fruit. It’s like a grapefruit except sweeter (yum!). 

Also I tried cooking ginko nuts. They are more trouble than they are worth. *gives up*

Saturday: After making sure I had future lessons planned, and cleaning some wayward windows, I hauled too much gear into the car and set off North to Yamakita Onsen for my birthday getaway. The drive was nice, it didn’t storm on me so I was safe, although I went through this red tunnel and who knows, it could have been a portal of some sort or ancient alien device. 

With my early check in to my Japanese style room, 

I was able to use the baths TWICE. As you may imagine I don’t have any pictures of them. But I can say it’s a very confusing process for foreigners so much there is a lot of advice online and at the onsen itself on how to use the baths. For future onsen-goers, I’ll explain it here.

In your room (if you have one), change into your yukata (underclothes underneath are OK). Be sure to fold the RIGHT side first, with the LEFT over it. Opposite is how they dress corpses. Grab your bath towel and the small towel. Both are essential. (And don’t forget your room key.) Some places you have to take in your own shampoo (I've read) but probably not the ones where you are staying the night. 

The onsen area is separated and even if you can’t read the kanji, don’t worry — blue for boys, pink for girls. In the locker room, you can leave your stuff in a locker or a basket, then, taking the small towel with you, enter the bath room. Sit on one of the little stools in front of a shower head and take a sitting shower, using your towel as a sponge. Get in a bath. Do not let your towel touch the water; set it to the side or put it on your head. If there is one, I recommend the outdoor bath, just because. Most places will have some sort of cool water pool you can use to cool down. 

When finished, wash again. After this, you can return to a bath to warm up if you’ve somehow managed to cool down. Wring out your little towel (not in the bath) and use it to dry as well as you can before you return to the locker room and your real towel. That’s it! Easy.

Here’s my first beautiful dinner here — first courses, anyway:

Note the crab to the left. My favorite is the mini-nabe (hotpot, to the left). The menu is in the front.

That night I turned on the TV and found first a symphony performance (just 1) and then a Go channel!!

Sunday: After a bath and a breakfast buffet, I set off to explore.

It’s an onsen resort town, so there are a great many hotels and inns, and some tourist sights most of which aren’t that interesting. However the scenery was nice. 

The riverside was beautiful, and my hotel was located a minute walk away from my favorite bridge EVER. 

I took a few too many pictures, then continued on to walk the river down to this bridge,

and back the other way to this bridge,

then back the other way back to this bridge, Ayatori Hashi.

Then I was tired and spent the rest of the day reading, bathing, and eating another cool dinner.

Jellied seaweed and… blowfish!! I think.

Monday: Baths, food, books. For some reason some hotels put this tea in the room — plum tea and mushroom tea. Both are horrible.

Luckily they gave me green tea as well, and a tasty cookie, so I was happy.

Here’s this night’s dinner:

Sashimi, shrimp roll things, yummy tofu things, and fried fishy stuff.

Then it was so nice out I decided to check out the bridge in the dark. 

Tuesday: For whatever reason (probably few guests), this breakfast was served in the restaurant (and yes you eat the WHOLE fish). 

I packed my things, and bid farewell. 

Thank you to my mother for a lovely onsen getaway!

On the way back I stopped at Maruoka Castle, scaled the walls,

and the stairs,

and checked out the museum, which had things like money, sword hilts, guns, and of course a scroll on how to use a staff.

I arrived with hours to prepare for my classes that night :)

Wed-Fri: I got cake for my birthday! Thank you my friends.
By the way, it's the Year of the Horse. Being caught between one new year and the other (Chinese new year) I'm either a Snake or a Horse. So last year was extra special. Or this year will be. Or both. Muahaha.

And the new teacher came! Her name is Alice and she’s from Italy.