Well, it’s late on Tuesday night. I’m back in my dormitory just having had my first day at university in 2010. Because we’re technically still in the first semester (of which we have around three weeks remaining), we’re covering exactly the same material as we were before. Not fun!
I realised I didn’t post anything about Nagano after New Years’, which is odd considering that’s the main reason I went, but the decision to leave my laptop charger at home was a deciding factor in my blog output. So apologies for that. I was very kindly given a CD as I left which contained more photos, so I will now recap on some of the things I got up to before coming back here, breaking up the cold, hard text with even colder pictures (because they’re full of snow).
On the big day itself, we waited until about 11:30, then headed out by foot through the snow to the shrine near Mako’s house. When we got there we joined a huge queue and waited to pray and buy good luck charms for 2010. I chose the one designed to help people pass exams. I assume it works 100% of the time and am therefore taking thirty seven masters degree exams this year.
After that it was sleep time, but then on New Year’s Day, we headed into the city of Nagano and checked out the big shrine. More praying. Lots more people. Awesome food. Oh, and even more snow!
Yes, I don’t know if there was snow where you guys were but we had plenty on New Year’s Day. What makes this extra fun is that they had none in Tokyo! Hah!
In the evening it was time for the event I’d been simultaneously anticipating and dreading. New Year’s dinner with the extended family. I have to say, just meeting Mako’s family on the first night was pretty nerve wracking, but it looked like my generous use of polite Japanese was sufficient. (At least I think it was, I have no idea if they now plan to besmirch my good reputation due to my rudeness. I hope not.) I remember walking into a room and watching nine or so faces drop about three foot. You see, in a hilarious twist the visitors had not been told about me. Needless to say they assumed the British were invading. Which we were. We had come to eat their delicious New Year’s food! (By ‘we’, I mean ‘I’. I get all the food.)
Can you spot me in that photo? I’ll give you a clue – I’m the girl on the right. The meal was delicious and everyone was really kind. I couldn’t shake a feeling that I was sort of gatecrashing the meal in the day or two leading up to it, but they all seemed genuinely pleased to have me join them. It was a really heartwarming feeling.
After the meal, Mako’s mother and her nieces (I think, everyone introduced themselves really quickly and I got confused. I think I remember someone being a robot or something) played us some songs on the piano and violin, which was a great way to end a memorable evening.
On my last full day in Nagano, we finally went off to do something I’d been dying to – go to an onsen! I’m pretty sure the last time I went to a hot spring was the one in the hotel in Nikko, in September 2008. That’s fifteen months! The view looked over the little town and the surrounding mountains, everything covered in snow. It was lovely. Sadly, you can’t take a camera into an onsen (for obvious nudity related reasons) so instead here is the view from my bedroom window taken on the last full day I had. It’s so beautiful, it makes me sad when I look around my dingy dungeon room.
So that’s it for my coverage of my lovely week in Nagano. Thanks obviously to Mako and his family for putting up with my confusing British traditions and poor grasp of how showers work. I was going to write my 2010 resolutions at the end of this post but it ended up being so long I won’t! I guess I will just have no resolutions this year! ANARCHY!
I put the photos I was given in a special folder in the gallery.
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Onsen! I love onsen. いい気持ち〜！
It’s great that you got to spend New Years with a Japanese family. :) What’s the food like you get at university?
Amanda: Yeah. I’m thinking of becoming an Onsen traveler. (Onsen Mawari). ‘Project Onsen’ might be pretty fun. Maybe one onsen every two weeks or better? Seems like a good target!
The university food here is surprisingly good! I mean it’s not as good as home made, but it’s pretty edible considering it’s made in a large batch.
I can empathise with your feeling of gatecrashing the meal; I stayed with a Japanese family in Sapporo for a while a couple of years back and part of my time with them was over New Year. The whole family was there and it all seemed exceedingly ceremonious: I just got in the way if I was honest, but it was a wonderful time all the same.
Nice photos: I’m glad Japan is kicking out its own share of snow as well as the UK at the moment; hopefully it will have gone by the time I get there in February!
I think they had fun, though. It was great for me. I tried not to make myself a problem at all and I think they realised that and appreciated it. I hope.