What Miss Mary Did for New Years

Okay, so the rest of my winter vacation:

After Dana left, I spent a few days hanging around in Saga. I reigned in the new year with oysters on the half shell and beer (and delicious meal and an excellent combination to get nauseous on), watching music shows on TV, and talking with a bunch of young Japanese folks. It was pretty excellent.

After midnight hit, we hopped in the car with the intent to go to Yuutoku Shrine. When we hit mostly stop and no go traffic 10 kilometers out from the Shrine, we decided no way, and then proceeded to wait 20 minutes before traffic moved enough for us to turn around. We went around Saga dropping people off, and I got home at around 2 and passed out.

Then, on New Years Day, I went to a Shrine. I turned in my old omamori (Literally, "honorable protection", usually they're in the shape of little square silk pouches with a piece of holy writing inside of it, but they can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes) and bought new omamori for the new year. Then I had a delicious meal with Emiko and Okamura-san and Tai-kun, and went home and slept soundly.

On January 2nd, I went across Kyushu to Oita. On the way there, I SAW SNOW!!! 8D I was on the train passing through Tosu, and the other commuters must've thought I was crazy because I kept snapping pictures and pressing my nose to the window and grinning like an idiot. But I don't care. I SAW SNOW. So there.
(Most of the pictures are blurry because the train was moving so fast, but I got to see it, and I got one picture that came out decently to prove I saw it, and I'm still super happy when I think about it, so all's good.)

I spent two days doing ne-shogatsu (Literally: "sleeping New Year." It works something like this: Sitting at what looks like a coffee table with about 12 other people, you eat traditional new years food (called osechi) and then watched TV, and if you feel like it you can lay down and nap (hey, you're sitting on the floor anyway, it's not that far), and then you wake up and watch more TV, then you go take a long hot bath in the family bath, and then you lay down some more and watch some more TV, and eventually the night passes an the host brings out a traiditonal Japanese breakfast, and you crawl over in your pj's and eat some more and then watch some more TV and talk, and then take a midday nap, and then lunch is brought out... Yep. I love ne-shogatsu!)

I decided in the middle of this that I had to get outside and walk and get some fresh air or my body and joints would murder me, so I did.

And then this cat decided it'd climb on me.

She was adorable and small and super affectionate. She also had fleas, so I kept the snuggling and rubbing to a minimum.

But, man, I miss cats.


Thank you, Saori and Saori's family, for your generosity! I really enjoyed all of the food (it was super delicious), the funny TV shows, the conversation, and the relaxing.