福岡！～ Fukuoka!

So, I should really just give up on the delusions that I'll be writing in my blog every week now that I know its more than likely impossible T_T I will try to put out a new blog once every two weeks now. HAHAHA. (Since recently, that seems to be what I've been doing...)

First off,

明けましておめでとうございます！～今年も、よろしくお願いします！～☆彡♥

Basically, that means 'Happy New Years' and...well, the second part is a little difficult. HAHA.

So, I said that I'd be having a little 'party' for the New Years and we did. we had probably enough food to feed a large family between just 4 of us. We watched the 紅白 on TV and got to see many of the popular singers in Japan sing their songs to celebrate the new year. The boys were white and girls red this year. I honestly thought that the girls had it won throughout the entire contest but in the end, I guess the likes of Arashi, Exile, etc. were too much. After this, we waited for the countdown to the New Years. YAY!~ Happy New Years! yeah...that's about it. Minoru got to check his lottery stuff and, I guess one can't expect too much, didn't went anything. T_T

The following morning we (meaning Minoru, Yukito and me) woke up nice and early at...6:00? Ok, so some of us didn't sleep or slept for like an hour or 2. We went to 普天満宮 and did our New Years thing and bought おみくじ and お守り. I got a 'normal' reading so I decided to keep it. Here is the person we bought the おみくじ from. Oh yeah, its ありな！～ She worked there from 11pm ~ 9am!!

Following this little endeavor, we all returned home for some much needed sleep. In my case, I got a good 4 hours of sleep before heading out the door once again and meeting up with Yuko-chan! We, as you might have guessed, went to Karaoke once again and this time, since we were bored, we played around with the different games on the machine. One was competing in the internet ranking system where they grade how well you do and compare to the tops of the month. Being 1-1, it meant we were very high ranked *cough cough* for the month.

We also found an option called 紅白 and basically it just divides the room into 2 teams (your choice really) and you compete against each other for the high score. Even after nine songs, our point separation was only 7 which is very close! I'm not going to say who won. Its not important because we actually had a LOT of fun ^-^

We returned to Yuko-chan's house and I got to eat my FIRST authentic (from Japan that is) New Year's meal. Its different than Hawai`i but I can't say which I like more.

Wow, that was all just one day...I'm tired just typing it all out. HAHAHA.

Anyway, the next few days were kind of a blur of homework and getting ready for the big event of my vacation, GOING TO FUKUOKA!! The date of my departure was 1-4 and so I had lots of preparation that needed to be done which included getting ready for snowy weather for the first time in a LONG time. Luckily, I had planned ahead and brought my winter clothes from before here with me. I just had to make sure that everything was clean.

So, the long awaited trip to Fukuoka finally occurs and I'm greeted at I-House with a, rather loud, おかえり！！！！！ which I'm pretty sure the whole neighborhood heard. Heh, oops? The first meal with everyone was exactly the first meal that we all had together the first time we met, オムライス。 The difference, I wasn't cooking it this time :p Got LOTS of time to chat and catch up with everyone...and then the inevitable rules of Japan start happening...Have to leave by 10pm. ANNOYING！！！

There's lots to write here but i don't want to bore you all so its best to sum it up like this: the vacation involved lots of eating and talking which, indecently, is what we used to do a lot when I was in Fukuoka before. Who would have thought? We had a big 'おかえりなさい' party for all of us that came back (there were 4 of us in total that were in Fukuoka at the same time).

We did get to do some Mochi Tsuki!~ Nogami-san's children came again and we once again had fun playing with all 3 of them (twins, 5, and older sister, 9) I have videos of them (hopefully soon they'll be on at least...) on my youtube.

I did go traveling some when I got to Fukuoka. I went to Yanagawa, 柳川, and got to meet up with 香廉 and spent one night with her family. The day that I got there, we went on a river tour thing where we went on a long boat trip (about 70 minutes). This was followed by a tour of a 'historical documents' museum. :p Have to love dictionaries! It was a pretty interesting museum and we got to eat ウナギ (eel) which is famous in Yanagawa. It was DELICIOUS! Definitely recommended to those of you who venture there. After this meal, we eventually went to a FREE foot spa thing. (not really spa, more like an area with heated water that really feels good for your foot.)
By this time, it was getting late so we headed back to 香廉's house. On the way, we stopped at a shrine where I bought yet another お守り. This one was for study (in the hopes something can help me...HAHA). We got to 香廉's house and spent a nice relaxing night in front of the TV watching various things including a soccer match until midnight.

The next morning, I awoke at about 8 and it was cold. Look outside, and its snowing up a storm (sort of). In any case, had a nice american/japanese style breakfast and then, at about 11, 香廉 woke up. 笑 I think at around 1 we went to 清水寺(Kiyomizu temple). For those of you familiar with Japan, I guess you'll likely be thinking 'Kiyomizu temple'? That's in Kyoto! And, you're right, it is in Kyoto but apparently (it was new to me also), the one in Yanagawa is the original and I can see the similarities between the two.

Well, I'm going to stop at that and eat me some dinner now!~

Hope the New Year is treating you well and if you want to try, you can read my japanese blog. I'm trying hard to work on it but Japanese is so hard T_T

Alohaz all!~ ☆彡♥