I just wanted you out there to take a look at what I had the good fortune of eating this afternoon for lunch. It being New Years Day, my mother-in-law bought my family a beautiful Osechi Ryori to welcome in 2013.
Take a look at some of the pictures I took:
This is a great New Years tradition. New Years in Japan is the biggest holiday of the year. I suppose the importance of it would be comparable to Christmas in Canada or Thanksgiving in America.
Another day on vacation, another day to sleep a little later than usual. Good stuff, but I did get up relatively early. There was some editing to do on some footage I took the other night when we were out at a Korean restaurant. It's been a long time since I've had some decent Korean food soI was pretty pleased to have some great "gamjatang" 감자탕 (spicy pork and potato soup) and "pajoen" 파전 (green onion pancake). You can see the finished product here:
Some Great Korean Food
The restaurant is called "Salongbang" and is located in Sannomiya, downtown Kobe. It was a little pricey, but apparently Korean food normally is in Japan.
Today was also quite cool because I had a chance to meet another fellow You Tube vlogger. "Marlogum" came down from Nagoya with his wife Antonette. they have been spending a few days traveling around Kansai and stopped by Kobe this afternoon to see some of the sights and say hello. I acted as their tour guide for the afternoon and had a very cool time hanging out in Motomachi, Meriken Park as well as Ikuta Shrine.
Here's what Ikuta Shrine looked like this afternoon. This tree is a decoration for "Oshogatsu" 正月 (Japanese New Year). There will be a big countdown celebration there on New Year's Eve.
I took some footage of us all hanging out together in Kobe this afternoon. If time allows, I'll edit something together and post it here later this week.
This will be my first Xmas/New Years' season in Japan, but I've been told, by numerous Japanese people, that soon things will be winding up as far as good times go. With year end parties (very common with Japanese companies) about to begin (throughout December) I've been told that I can expect to see huge crowds in Kobe's drinking areas and lots of really loaded people stumbling about. Most of them will be office workers and "salarymen" getting knackered to celebrate the "out with the old and in with the new."
This afternoon I was surfing around some news in Japan and came across this poster. The Tokyo Metro is already gearing up for this years' festivities by posting subway "manner posters" throughout the city's underground network! The perfect way to ring in the New Year!
Check out this VERY entertaining video that explores the "salaryman" drinking culture in Japan. It's from a BBC television show called "Adam and Joe Go Tokyo." "Adam and Joe Go Tokyo: Salaryman night out"
"It's a field trip day!!" Wow! A long time ago, when I was new to the teaching business, I used to think field trips would be wonderful. They'd be an easy day compared to the juggling one normally has to do in the classroom when teaching. A great chance for both teachers and students alike to get outside of the school and stretch our legs.
Now I know...I was a fool. With more experience under my belt I realize that field trips are often far more stressful than any day I the classroom. You are out of your element and so are the kids. Normal routines and rules seem to fly out the window and often chaos begins. Head counts, squirrely kids, general confusion... a wonderful recipe for ulcers!
Luckily today wasn't one of those days. I went with my class to a fire department. It was a cool little trip. We were able to experience an earthquake simulator as well as look at some cool fire trucks. I was in charge of a happy group of kids.
The only disappointment was that we were scheduled to ride a fire truck, but once we got there, they told us we couldn't. The weird thing was, the kids were far less disappointed than I was!
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