お正月at my host family's

Yoohoo! These 2 days Tokyo is cold cold cold!  But I think I'm dealing with the cold better than last year. I could even go out in a mere short-sleeve top underneath my coat! 

Anyways, I spent my second お正月 (Oshougatsu) with my host family!  I love them so much! They always invite me over to their place for whatever festivities there are, and they treat me like their own daughter. I will miss them sooooooooo much when I leave Japan. Omg I don't even want to think about it. 

Simple and classy New Year decorations. 

My お父さん said that the New Year wouldn't begin without the first sip of お屠蘇 (otoso). 

It's a sweet medicinal sake made from cinnamon, ginger and some herbs. Yummy! 

お父さん always prepares a list of foods with their translations for me. 

And then he would say, 'See if you can spot everything on the menu and eat them!' He's so cute! 

And my お母さん brought out this!

 おみくじ(omikuji)！

The omikuji that came out is actually a pair of chopsticks! 

I got 吉！

おせち料理(Osechi)！Japanese traditional new year foods. 

Homemade osechi by my お母さん, simple yet very tasty! 

And while we were drinking and eating and making merry...

...the whole house started to shake.

And it continued for one minute. 

We stayed calm and switched on the tv to check for information about the earthquake. 

An earthquake of magnitude 7.0 happened somewhere in the ocean nearby and shook the whole of Japan. 

Luckily there was no tsunamis. I thought it was going to be 311 all over again, but God bless Japan, it wasn't. 

...and so we continued with our daily businesses. 

My お姉さん putting on the kimono for me! 

More おみくじ！

お母さん is super talented at drawing and origami. 

Look at what she did for me! She drew these! And look at those origami dragons! 

I hope that 2012 will be a wonderful year of the Dragon for everyone! 

Katsushika Fireworks Festival

Blogging about Summer again!

Summer in Japan is a time for fireworks and festivals of all kinds. Most of the major fireworks events occur in July and August. However, things are a little different this year. Many fireworks festivals are canceled due to the 3.11 disaster as some people feel that it is inappropriate to carry on with the usual celebration. But majority of the Japanese people think it is good to go ahead with the usual festivity to bring a little joy to everyone's lives.

So me and my Shanghai friend Q dressed up in our yukatas and headed to the Katsushika Fireworks Festival! 

Me and Q, whom I love very much! 

With our Korean boyfriend K, hee hee hee. 

He is one of the sweetest and kindest guys I know. Miss him loads! 

Purikura before heading for fireworks. It's not everyday that you get to walk around in a yukata! 

Crazy, crazy crowd. 

Took us a while before we could get out of the station.  It was hot and stuffy and we were getting impatient...

...but it was WORTH IT. 

Cos baby you're a firework! 

I will never forget the Summer of 2011. Glad to have spent it with people I love. 

Yukata and Tokyo Bay Cruise

Yoohoo!  

Autumn semester classes have finally begun for me today, and I had a pretty good first day at school.   My timetable is quite relaxed, which is good cos I need more time to do my own research for my paper. Other than Japanese language classes, I am also taking some regular university classes and grad school classes. And I made plenty of new friends today!    

Back to the topic of the day. I have been gone from this blog all summer and I thought I should slowly catch up on my summer adventures updates.  

Summer in Japan is a time for yukata-wearing. Yukata (浴衣) is a summer version of the kimono and it is usually made of cotton. Many people can been seen wearing their yukatas and going to summer events like fireworks displays and matsuris. 

Here are the yukatas I wore this summer! 

Same pose, same head-tilt angle, haha. 

Out of the 3, I owe 2 yukatas and the other one belongs to my friend. We did a lot of swapping and hence had the chance to wear different yukatas to various events. 

I went to several fireworks displays and festivals this summer. One event I particularly enjoyed was the Tokyo Bay Cruise with Tokyo Nouryousen (東京湾納涼船). 

The 東京湾納涼船 cruises around Tokyo Bay in the evenings and offers a wonderful night view. 

Waiting to board. 

Tickets are 2,500yen each, and visitors get a 1,000yen discount if they show up in yukata. 

Best part is the free-flow of drinks, which includes alcohol! 

Regular matsuri foods like yakisoba and takoyaki are sold on board. 

Cute guy selling fried stuff. 

Girls enjoying the cool evening breeze. 

There is also a dance floor and a stage where different performances entertain visitors every evening.

The main highlight is the Yukata Dance! 

Yukata-clad dancers doing an energetic dance with pop music. 

The cruise ship is basically a nightclub at sea and I strongly recommend it to party-goers who have a chance to visit Tokyo in summer. 

Found a post in English on their blog. There's a video too!