New Year's, day 1

Yidan and I met Rie at Shibuya early New Year's Eve, where we hopped a train to Ueno and transferred to another one that got off at Arakawaoki (荒川沖), and got driven back by Rie's dad.

The Kubotas live about a five-minute-drive from the station; after we came in, we were ushered upstairs to Rie's room, and then called down to have some toshikoshi soba, which is a traditional New Year's food that's supposed to connect the new year with the old. During that, we chatted with Rie's grandmother and mother about stuff; they were impressed with my Japanese speaking. I couldn't understand everything they said, but I got enough, apparently. Heh.

We walked to the local grocery store, played video games in the Toys'R'Us they have there (Naruto fighting game! Squee!) , and found this baby Pooh doll whose head spazzes when you rattle the attached toy. It got frightening after a while.

Once we got back with some takoyaki in hand (octopus balls, for those of you who don't know), we got called over to sit in the room with a kotatsu by Rie's grandparents, and they taught us a game called hanafuda, which is played around New Year's. Basically, it's a matching game of sorts; you're dealt out these cards, and there's a main motif (iris, peony, hills, whatever) and the cards have one of these on a picture with varying complexity. The more complex the picture, the more points it's worth. Out of the remaining deck, there are about six surrounding cards, and each player takes turns matching up their cards and tossing one out to replace the missing one, and then drawing another one. The winner is the one who has the most points.

I won all three times. Just lucky, I guess. (I got my ass kicked the next day when we were playing another card game, though.)

We went back up to Rie's room and hung out playing with Rie's makeup and hairdos until we were called down again for dinner (yakitori, mmm). We stayed until about half-past eleven or so watching the traditional Red Vs. White singers show on NHK.

A few comments I feel I should make on it:

Hikawa Kyousuke's adorable. It's even cooler because he dresses up in pink sparkly tuxedoes and sings like one of the old-time enka dudes, and he's like, in his twenties.

Takizawa Hideaki (or Takki) is really hot, at least from what I could see when he was being a judge. He looks good in a tuxedo, even cooler when he's dressed as Yoshitsune in the upcoming drama for this year. Better than the sparkly boxers.

There is a singer whose first name is Akiko who I swear looks and sounds a lot like a man, despite the evidence from old footage that she really is a woman. Rie kept pointing to her throughout the stay saying, "she's a woman, really" while I just gaped and gaped. There's an Asian Bea Arthur for you.

There is also another singer called Kenichi who is known for outlandish costumes and wears makeup. The costume this year can only be described as Bjork's interpretation of Queen Elizabeth I, carried out by Liberace. A ruff, sparkles, and the lights rippling off his huge winglike skirt thing (I swear, the thing was big enough to fit at least four of him) in a rainbow motif. He spent the rest of the show either in a sparkly purple tux or the girliest man's kimono I've seen.

Ayumi Hamasaki had cool backup dancers for her performance "Moments"--then again, I'm way into ancient/medieval Japan like nobody's business, and the women were dressed like they were from the Kamakura era. I don't think she could move in her costume, though; she stayed in it rather stiffly (it looked like a rather gaudy Elizabethan costume with sparkles), until the backup dancers helpfully ripped it off, leaving her standing in an equally sparkly corset and bloomers a la Moulin Rouge.

Matsudaira Ken, for me, was the highlight of the show; there's something about a man with the build of a football player prancing about in a gold sparkly kimono and shaking his hips better than any woman. Thanks to him, I had the "Matsu Ken Samba" stuck in my head even when I got back to Mitaka.

Since I was dead tired, they let me hit the ofuro first amongst the three of us, and it was terrific. Fantastic. I want one in my house. You wash outside the tub with a little stool, and then when you're rinsed off, you step in. The water was deep--it reached just above my chest, and it was incredibly warm and comfortable once I eased in.

That ended the New Year's Eve for everyone after they had their baths, and it was peaceful, except for the earthquake that happened during the night. Luckily, nobody was hurt and nothing was harmed, but it was an experience.

More to come...