Well after our big Disney day, we needed a bit of a lie in to get some energy back with New Years Eve. We went to Dave and KTs place for our last dinner of 2010 - it was delicious and was really great to see them again! On the way round there we had stopped off at Crispy Creams to buy a big box of doughnuts as a little treat to take around there with us! They were completely gorgeous of course! Everyone loves doughnuts!
We said our Happy New Years to eachother (and the cat enjoying the heated floor) and got on our way to Asakusa!
We had a couple of options for new years but ended up meeting up with Rieko and Cedric and their friends to go to the Temple at midnight to see how Japan really celebrates New Years!
We got there at about half 9 and there was a queue for the temple! Most people like to go to temple at midnight or on New Years Day. Actually as it turned out there wasn't much
celebration at the Temple we had gone to. We were hoping to see lots and lots of people crowded in each with a balloon (they write their wishes for the new year on their balloon) and then at midnight everyone lets go of their ballons!
We had a pretty cool night though - but completely random! We waited whilst a few people queued at the temple. Then we decided to have a go ... hm... I don't know what it's called... anyway you shake this metal box until a small wooden stick comes out (excuse the picture... but there's the wooden stick!!!) it has a number on it and you open the draw with the same number on it...
In the draw is a little fortune...
this is your fortune (I'm not sure if
fortune is the politically correct way of saying what it is) well a predication of your next year! Mine read (written mainly in Japanese and then translated to English on the bottom half so please excuse the translation - it's not the best)
No. 89 The Best Fortune
Your gem has no flaw and it will glisten better when you polish.
Good character by nature becomes much better when you polish yourself.
You will become known better.
You become wealthy and you may have repeated stroke of good luck.
You hope will be come true.
The patient will be sure to recover.
The lost thing is later to be found.
Building a new house and removal are both good.
It is good for you making a trip
Both marriage and employment are good.
It sounds pretty vague if you ask me but I was totally happy with it! I have to keep it now til the end of the year for it to come true for 2011! Fran on the other hand got
The Worst Fortune everything mine had said his said the opposite... as far as "Your house will burn down" hm... nice hey! Everyone said to Fran it only counted til the end of 2010 anyway because we did it around 10:30pm! I think they were trying to make him feel better -aw! Anyway... when you get bad luck you tie it to the frame then it gets burnt so that it doesn't come true! WOOP!
Matt got a good one and he kept his. Rieko and Masato didn't like theirs, so they tied it to the frame!
There were lots of food stalls selling traditional Japanese food and some Korean food and lots of food on sticks of course...
By this point there was a really big group of us... There were people from England, Japan, France, Sweden, Singapore, Philippines and America! We ended up outside Starbucks, where they were giving away free small cups of coffee! By this point the queue was winding around all the main roads in the area, it must have been over a couple of miles long! Crazy, hey!!!
Well there was no count down... no hugging... everyone just said "wahey" and then it was 2011 and that was it! Me and Matt made a little bit more noise and of course us English lot all hugged! We all headed to an Izakaya which is a cheap food and drinks place.
Me, Matt and Fran stayed there til about half 2 (the trains and subways were running all night long because of everyone visiting the temples and shrines)! We had such a great time with everyone... the company 110% made up for the not so exciting change from 2010-2011! Really happy that I could spend New Years Eve with some great people, great friends and Matthew there too!!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!
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