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明けましておめでとうござきます
So, not a particularly exciting new year's eve, but sort of nice all the same. I spent most of today just hanging out in my apartment, doing some laundry, answering some emails, sorting through receipts and some other stuff, generally relaxing. Carl called me around 4:45pm to let me know that he and Oren had gotten to Japan okay, but that there was a delay of the Narita Express so they wouldn't be hitting Akabane until at least 7pm. I had vaguely debated going shopping today, but sort of nixed that idea and by 6pm realized that my best bet was probably just to head to Akabane and wait for the guys to get there, because otherwise it'd take me 30 mins or so to reach them when they called.
At 7pm I was in Akabane station waiting around to see if I'd catch them coming in, or waiting for a call. By 7:15 I realized I probably looked pretty stupid doing that, so I went and wandered through Akabane a bit to see which shops were open. (Heiroku and Anrakutei and some others were open; Daiso was closed) While standing in the big bookstore tachiyoming some baseball magazines I got a phone call from Carl, around 7:30. He was calling from outside the hotel, which was literally 2 or 3 blocks from me, so I walked down the street and found him.
We got Oren and hunted for food, except that Oren nixed sushi and Carl nixed yakiniku, and Otoya was closing at 8pm, and Little Spoon closed at 7pm, so we ended up at Tenya. Even better, Tenya had a limited menu and was closing at 9pm and by the time we got there all you could order was either Tendon, Joutendon, or Ebiten. But, hey, food. After that I went back to their hotel with them and we watched Kouhaku Uta Gassen (紅白歌合戦 -- an annual New Year's music show), which we missed the first hour of, but that's ok. I thought it was super-wacky how many of the performers I recognized, and when Toshihide Baba started singing I was all like "OMFG I SAW HIM AT YOKOHAMA BAYSTARS FANFEST AND NOW HE IS ON KOUHAKU HOLY SHIT!!!" I really enjoyed hearing Akikawa Masafumi sing again, and of course it was great fun watching Hikawa Kiyoshi (the only enka singer I kind of like) as always. The best was SMAP at the end -- not only did they do a medley of "Dear Woman" and "Dangan Fighter", BUT the final song for Kouhaku overall -- in honor of protecting the environment -- was 世界に一つだけの花 and EVERYONE in Kouhaku sang along! And so did I, and so did Carl (kind of). Awesomeness. That made me all sorts of happy.
Kouhaku ended at 11:45pm. We watched an NHK program for 15 minutes about them ringing temple bells at temples all over the country, and then at midnight they showed Asakusa and it was like "Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!!!" and... and that was it. Carl had pretty much been falling asleep the last hour or two of Kouhaku anyway, being as he was still on Seattle time, and Oren had even ducked out to go to sleep around 10pm. So, I left a little after midnight to come home. I guess I got to Warabi station around 12:35am, and rode my bike home. I had to take a detour around 塚越神社 because it was PACKED with people, surprisingly -- they had blocked off the streets nearby to bike and car traffic. It looked like there were lots of people at the shrine actually DOING stuff for once -- usually that shrine is pretty much completely deserted when I go by. I wonder if there are any other days of the year where people bother going there?
I've been sitting here for the last hour remembering past New Yearses. Here's where I've been at New Year's midnight for the last ten years:
1997->1998: Philly (hung out at my dad's apartment with Aiton, watched stupid movies and fireworks)
1998->1999: Philly (hung out at my dad's apartment with Andrew A, Tim, Sarah, Laurel, and Laurel's friends)
1999->2000: Philly (slept through New Year's because I was depressed)
2000->2001: Amherst (did First Night in Northampton with Eli's family)
2001->2002: Boston (Eli and I stayed at Laurel and Jason's, partied at Heather and Jarrett's. Hmmm.)
2002->2003: Illusionz (well I spent NYE with Eli but the rest of the week at the arcade)
2003->2004: Seattle (party at Megan and Josh's with the House of Slack)
2004->2005: Texas (party at Adam and Rehana's, with Nick and Zach and Oren and Brad and Carl)
2005->2006: Seattle (at my apartment, watching movies with Carl and Oren)
2006->2007: Philly (party at Dov's house in West Philly, hanging out with Ben and Aiton)
2007->2008: Tokyo (watching TV with Carl)
Kind of weird. I don't really know where I'll be next year. The funny part is that last New Year's I was on the east coast seeing my family because I knew that my plan was to move to Japan in 2007, even if THEY didn't know it. Also, I really miss the New Yearses from the mid-1990's when we used to all go to Aiton's house and act like dorks all night and raid IHOP at 2am and yell "FREE RALPH" in the streets of Lower Merion. Alas.
I need to come up with some resolutions I suppose. Last year my only resolution was "move to Japan". It would be pretty lame if my only resolution for 2008 is "take the 2-kyuu in December", wouldn't it?
Anyway, happy new year!!!!!!!!!
At 7pm I was in Akabane station waiting around to see if I'd catch them coming in, or waiting for a call. By 7:15 I realized I probably looked pretty stupid doing that, so I went and wandered through Akabane a bit to see which shops were open. (Heiroku and Anrakutei and some others were open; Daiso was closed) While standing in the big bookstore tachiyoming some baseball magazines I got a phone call from Carl, around 7:30. He was calling from outside the hotel, which was literally 2 or 3 blocks from me, so I walked down the street and found him.
We got Oren and hunted for food, except that Oren nixed sushi and Carl nixed yakiniku, and Otoya was closing at 8pm, and Little Spoon closed at 7pm, so we ended up at Tenya. Even better, Tenya had a limited menu and was closing at 9pm and by the time we got there all you could order was either Tendon, Joutendon, or Ebiten. But, hey, food. After that I went back to their hotel with them and we watched Kouhaku Uta Gassen (紅白歌合戦 -- an annual New Year's music show), which we missed the first hour of, but that's ok. I thought it was super-wacky how many of the performers I recognized, and when Toshihide Baba started singing I was all like "OMFG I SAW HIM AT YOKOHAMA BAYSTARS FANFEST AND NOW HE IS ON KOUHAKU HOLY SHIT!!!" I really enjoyed hearing Akikawa Masafumi sing again, and of course it was great fun watching Hikawa Kiyoshi (the only enka singer I kind of like) as always. The best was SMAP at the end -- not only did they do a medley of "Dear Woman" and "Dangan Fighter", BUT the final song for Kouhaku overall -- in honor of protecting the environment -- was 世界に一つだけの花 and EVERYONE in Kouhaku sang along! And so did I, and so did Carl (kind of). Awesomeness. That made me all sorts of happy.
Kouhaku ended at 11:45pm. We watched an NHK program for 15 minutes about them ringing temple bells at temples all over the country, and then at midnight they showed Asakusa and it was like "Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!!!" and... and that was it. Carl had pretty much been falling asleep the last hour or two of Kouhaku anyway, being as he was still on Seattle time, and Oren had even ducked out to go to sleep around 10pm. So, I left a little after midnight to come home. I guess I got to Warabi station around 12:35am, and rode my bike home. I had to take a detour around 塚越神社 because it was PACKED with people, surprisingly -- they had blocked off the streets nearby to bike and car traffic. It looked like there were lots of people at the shrine actually DOING stuff for once -- usually that shrine is pretty much completely deserted when I go by. I wonder if there are any other days of the year where people bother going there?
I've been sitting here for the last hour remembering past New Yearses. Here's where I've been at New Year's midnight for the last ten years:
1997->1998: Philly (hung out at my dad's apartment with Aiton, watched stupid movies and fireworks)
1998->1999: Philly (hung out at my dad's apartment with Andrew A, Tim, Sarah, Laurel, and Laurel's friends)
1999->2000: Philly (slept through New Year's because I was depressed)
2000->2001: Amherst (did First Night in Northampton with Eli's family)
2001->2002: Boston (Eli and I stayed at Laurel and Jason's, partied at Heather and Jarrett's. Hmmm.)
2002->2003: Illusionz (well I spent NYE with Eli but the rest of the week at the arcade)
2003->2004: Seattle (party at Megan and Josh's with the House of Slack)
2004->2005: Texas (party at Adam and Rehana's, with Nick and Zach and Oren and Brad and Carl)
2005->2006: Seattle (at my apartment, watching movies with Carl and Oren)
2006->2007: Philly (party at Dov's house in West Philly, hanging out with Ben and Aiton)
2007->2008: Tokyo (watching TV with Carl)
Kind of weird. I don't really know where I'll be next year. The funny part is that last New Year's I was on the east coast seeing my family because I knew that my plan was to move to Japan in 2007, even if THEY didn't know it. Also, I really miss the New Yearses from the mid-1990's when we used to all go to Aiton's house and act like dorks all night and raid IHOP at 2am and yell "FREE RALPH" in the streets of Lower Merion. Alas.
I need to come up with some resolutions I suppose. Last year my only resolution was "move to Japan". It would be pretty lame if my only resolution for 2008 is "take the 2-kyuu in December", wouldn't it?
Anyway, happy new year!!!!!!!!!
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あなた に もう 明けましておめでとうござきます！
Hope you all have fun. :)
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2004->2005: My house, with my family :(
2005->2006: Laura's house
2006->2007: My house, but with friends
2007->2008: Hey
I can't remember any before then.
Resolutions are lame. If I'm going to start something, I'm going to do it right then and there.