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Published: January 2nd 2009
7,000 miles away from any familiar American New Year's traditions....I began my Japanese New Year celebration with friends here at my dormitory. We all ate dinner together and huddled around the television to watch the New Year's special live from Tokyo which featured Japan's most famous music, film, and sports stars. This is pretty similar to the American TV show Rockin New Year's Eve with Dick Clark but it is filmed inside of a large concert hall in Tokyo and of course broadcast in Japanese. I was pretty excited to see my favorite Japanese artist Koda Kumi on TV as well as a Japanese group called Perfume...which has more of Techno house feel to it.
Around 10:30 some people from the other dormitory joined us before we headed down to the temple to ring the bell for New Year's. Me and some friends went up to my room to watch an episode of Family Guy and some funny Youtube videos before heading out to the temple. Around 11:30 we all got on our bikes and rode them to a nearby temple. For the New Year it is tradition for the majority of Japanese people to goto a nearby temple to
A good year to come
Me tossing a coin into the donation box at the temple.ring the bell and pray for prosperity in the new year. This year is also the year of the cow according to Chinese traditions I assume.
So I got to ring the bell and we had some free sweet sake after everyone got a turn to ring in the new year Japanese style. After we left the temple we headed to Rits I-house 2. We took a group photo and some people headed to Karaoke while myself and a couple of people just took it easy and hung out in the lounge talking all night. This experience by far is the quietest New Year's celebration that I have had in a long time but it is one that I will remember always!
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
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Meredith
non-member comment
Happy New Year! 39 days til I make my journey!