New Years 「お正月」

Hello, Calgary - From Sapporo.

Thursday December 30 2010 (Japan time)

I did my homework today. =) All of it. I wanted the rest of my Christmas Holidays to myself and not be preoccupied with homework. That's all I did today. Nothing special to report. Though... I will upload some random photos of photos I took on my iPod touch from awhile ago. =) I don't know when I took some of the but meh, here they are~

This be "motarasu" --- もたらす

Kota and I.

So the special today is Crab Imposing Fried Rice and Eat Chili Oil Fried Rice

Followed by some "The Gills grilling of Yellowtail."

For appetizers, we have some "Attaching Sleep Spit."

And last but not least, our most popular dish, Spit of the Moon or Cheese to Lucky. =) We hope you consider our suggestions. --- LOL ahh... This was taken on the day I was drunk to the point of death.

Friday December 31 2010 (Japan time)

I was invited by my host family to spend New Years Eve together. =) I gladly took on the offer and yea, I was glad I agreed. I bought a bouquet of ASIAN flowers and my host mother turned it into art. =) I took a picture of it with my iPod Touch... I always forget to bring my camera for such wonderful occasions...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that there, in the middle, is from a pine tree. =) Everything here is symbolic, lol. Pine for long life. The red berries for fortune and the white flowers/twig in the back is symbolic of spring. =)

Anyhow, I met everyone in the family. From aunts to uncles to cousins and grandparents. =) I finally met the host family dad, lol. I guess he works away from home or something. I don't quite understand and I probably should not ask about it either. Everyone was so nice, lol. I ate dinner with everyone. Chatted with everyone. It was great. I wish I took pictures. I even made a little friend. His name is Ko-Chan, lol. He's around 7 years old and he hates being called Ko-chan. Awesome little kid. I'll try and ask my host to send me the picture she took of me Ko-chan.

The grandmother was very, very interesting. She is the polar opposite of my grandmother who lives in Vietnam. This grandmother smiles, jokes and is very active. Lmao. She was so awesome. She's so carefree. She smiles a lot... A... lot. Totally a plus for her. =) Her favorite color is brown.
The grandpa is a bit more strict, lol. He's a Calligraphy artist, lol. He was impressed that I knew stroke orders for Kanji... (Thanks a lot, Kodama Sensei!) But yea, he's also a HS teacher and likes the color purple and Kamaboko (蒲鉾).

But yes, Ko-Chan asked me if I will be around tomorrow and I said no. He then became sad and walked away. =(

I forgot my PJ's at home so I borrowed a pair from Hisashi. He was out partying with his friends when I went to bed, lol~ Ah... I slept in his room too. The room I was sleeping in before was preoccupied by grandparents and aunts/uncles. Dear gosh... Japanese people sleep under such heavy blankets.. I felt like the circulation in my body was getting cut off.

Saturday January 1 2011 (Japan time)

I woke up today at around 8:30 to eat breakfast with everyone. We had fish and some traditional New Years food, lol. I left at around 10:15AM because I was supposed to meet up with an OL from my University. She invited a group of us to go over to her house on New Years to celebrate and go to the temple, etc. =) I had two breakfasts that morning! (+ for me) We finished eating at around 11:30AM then we decided to have some fun with Calligraphy. It was my first time so I was a bit hesitant but I took a few pictures of the last two things I wrote, lol.

We then went to the shrine at around 1PM. It was close to the sector where I usually take the train to go back home. I was warned that shrines during New Years will become very crowded and yea... it was crowded, lol. Apparently, the biggest shrine in Sapporo (Hokkaido Shrine) was packed with people @ around 12AM, right when we hit 2011... (I saw pictures. My friend went there at around that time, lol.) But anyhow, I was dropped off somewhere close to my station and I went home and made dinner for myself. =) I did not do much other than relax, lol. It was a bit chilly today. I was planning on going to the Hokkaido Shrine but it was too dark to see anything. Instead, I just read my book and browsed the net... Then went to bed! =) Satisfaction.

Sunday January 2 2011 (Japan time)

Today I went to Hokkaido Jinjya. I did not bring my camera unfortunately. It was a fairly big shrine. And it was cold... It apparently was the biggest shrine in Sapporo and it really was, lol. There were vendors outside of the shrine selling food and random souvenirs. I wanted to buy little charms from the shrine but I did not have any money with me... I tried to withdraw money before I went to the shrine but yea, Hokuyo ATM's were closed... I went to the convenient store and it would not let me withdraw. Luckily, I had just enough money to buy transit fair to and from the shrine.

I went to the post office to try and withdraw money from their ATM's but it did not work... I finally went back to Sapporo Station and asked around. A lady finally told me that Hokuyo is closed all day until tomorrow because they are currently merging with another bank. (Great, I wanted to go shopping today too. Today is equivalent to "Boxing Day." Japanese people have huge sales after New Years. But yea, that plan was utterly spoiled. I was disappointed) Thankfully, I still had 100CAD equivalence in my room, lol. I went back home to get the money, left for Sapporo station and bought some kamaboko (蒲鉾) It turns out the grandpa in the family really likes that stuff. =) I like it too, lol. It's full of MSG. Mmm~ (Once in awhile only) But yea, I took the bus to my host parents house to visit grandparents one last time before they leave. We went out for dinner at around 5:30 at some Japanese restaurant. I bought a shellfish dinner set which came with various side dishes. =) It was great! Something I would never get in Calgary for the same price, lol. Maybe x2.

We all went home afterward and I asked them a question about my homework. In english they all mean "with" but in Japanese, it's slightly different.. I could not pick out the difference, lol. I had to ask... In return, I helped Yuri and Sayu with their English homework. =) I left at around 11:30 PM and got home at around 12PM. I said goodbye to grandparents and hopefully one day we will meet again. =) Anyhow, that was the end of my day.

Monday January 3 2011 (Japan time)

Thank god I still had a little bit of money, lol. I was supposed to go Skiing today and yea, it would have been troublesome if I did not have any money with me. It was only around ~30CAD. I would have been screwed if it was anything more, lol. But yea, 30CAD came with a ski jacket, snow pants, ski shoes, the glider thingies itself and a lunch voucher~ LOL It was totally worth it. It was a one day thing only. =(

Christine in all her glory. I look slightly distorted for some reason, lol.

But yea, skiing was... Interesting. It was mighty hard to get use to at first but yea, I managed to survive the bunny hill the first 20 minutes. We then took the lift up to the mountain and then yea, all hell broke lose.. LOL!!! I couldn't stop on the shallow hill going down. The dad's method was too difficult. Bibi taught me a different method and it was much easier, lol... I did not strain my legs at all but the chances of falling were bit greater, lol. The shallow hill was perfectly fine... Then came the steep hill.. LOL!! I did not fall down once until then. The scenery at the top was nice. I took a few photos. But anyhow, going down the steep hill was scary, lol. I was supposed to zigzag my way down but I couldn't turn right, lol. I usually end up just going straight and  yea, that's a bad thing, lol. It's much harder to stop and the chances of hitting someone is greater, lol. But anyhow, I fell down at least 5 times going down the hill and it took about 1hr and a 1/2. LOL~ When we finally got to the bottom... We all decided to go for lunch. There I took some more random photos and yea, my body was hurting. We went back outside to the bunny hill for a wee bit and then I went back up to THE hill... LOL Ahh... It seemed like such a waste of money if I did not at least take on that mountain at least 2x. The Chinese girl who was came with us refused to go back, lol. I managed to swerve side to side for a good few minutes... Then came the extremely steep part, lol. I did better this time round but I still fell a lot. Mindway.. I just went straight down and then crashed, LOL! Ah, it was scary but fun at the same time. Lots of laughter today~ I'm glad I went. =)

You can see the shore from the summit of the mountain~

The crew~

Once more

We're cool. We know.

Taken when it was about to turn dark. The lady closest to the camera is Christine's Host Mother, lol. But yea, look at the back. A black cloud of something is approaching the shore ;o~ Creepy. That's all for now.

By the way, the ski resort is about 30 minutes away from Sapporo station. It's called... I don't remember, lol. But anyhow, I took the train back with Christine's host mother and the Chinese girl. I slept on the train, lol. I got home at around 6? It was fun. =)

Tuesday January 4 2011 (Japan time)

 I was expecting my body to ache today but it was only slightly sore when I got up.. but that quickly went away once I took a shower. Today, I went shopping. =) yay! LOL I finally could withdraw money from bank. I went straight to the mall and wandered... I bought a vest and a T-Shirt.. Everything I wanted to buy was gone.. -devastation- But yea, I also wanted to buy a pair of shoes because the ones I bought from home were not warm enough, lol. One has a hole and the other is very, very breathable... But anyhow, I found a pair of boots that I wanted and yea, there were two things wrong:

1: It was 400CAD
2: They did not have my size... At all.

LOL. I asked the guy if I could try on a different pair of boots just to see if I would fit in it and yea... I couldn't even fit the largest shoe size for boots in that store, lol... -sigh- That dream lasted about a week. I can now settle for something else. The price is rather outrageous, lol. But then again... I could wear then for 4 years.. =) LOL Anyhow. I went home at around 5:30PM~ Cooked then studied a bit. That ended my day.

Wednesday January 5 2011 (Japan time)

I showed Christine the boots today, lol. We went shopping around again and we went for some KaitenZushi~ Bibi was with us today. =) I didn't buy anything but Bibi bought a sweater from some store. She almost bought a new pair of shoes but refused to buy it because she already bought a pair... Christine didn't buy anything lol. She only window shopped. They spent a good 1hr going through Uniqlo and ABC Mart, lol... Slow shoppers -cough- Anyhow, I got home at around 6PM. Cooked dinner then went to the study hall to study for my kanji test for tomorrow. =) That's all.

Thursday January 6 2011 (Japan time)

Didn't do anything too spectacular today. I made Japanese food today, lol. It consists of carrots, lotus root and burdock, lol. My mother boils burdock to drink as a herbal remedy for her sickness but as it turns out, you can also eat that stuff! =) It tastes good too. =) It's a bit earthy. I made too much so I gave a portion of it to Dinara. She really likes that stuff too, lol.

I first ate it when I was over at my host families house, lol. I ate it and yea... I was trying to figure out the ingredients so I could make it myself. I got everything right minus the sake, lol. (Japanese alcohol) But yea, that's all~ I didn't really do much today either. Just relaxed.

Friday January 7 2011 (Japan time)

I decided to attend a Kendo session at the University. LOL It was interesting. It is now official - my arms are too long for my body, lol. My shoulders were slightly contorted when I held the stick in front of me, lol. (Properly)  The footwork was, for the most part, easy to get use to.. We also combined a basic strike technique with the footwork, lol. I had to leave prematurely because I was supposed to meet up with my host sister to practice some English, lol. I met up with her at around 4:45. We practiced until 6 then I we went home. The weather was nasty today... It was blizzarding hcore, lol. I took a picture of it. It's the first photo you see at the top~ Apparently, if it got any worse, all of the buses would have stopped and yea.. People who live downtown would have been doomed, lol. I ran out of food to cook so I just ate two eggs with the veggy dish I made yesterday~ That's all for today. =)

Saturday January 8 - Sunday January 9th 2011 (Japan time)

I made oden on sunday~ Lol 「おでん」 I was craving for some hot since the weather today was also miserable. It takes a bit of time to make so I usually don't make stuff like this but yea, today was an exception~ It tasted damn good. =) I did not take any pictures but yea, take my word for it. =) It was good. I finished all of my homework today~ So + for me. I also watched a Korean horror movie called, "The Haunted House Project." It was actually quite good, lol. I enjoyed most of it. =) (For the most part...)

I ate yesterdays dinner for breakfast today. =) It was good, lol. Really warmed me up in the morning. I chatted with mother, sister and uncle today. I took a nap at around 2PM and woke up 3PM, lol. I was more tired today than usual. Anyhow, nothing today either. The weather was ugly too but it's slowly improving. =) I shall now go cook, lol. I finally caught up to almost 2 weeks of posting.. (Lol T-T)