January: New Year's 2010!
Celebrating the New Year in Japan!
I told Terry we were going out no matter what for New Year's Eve since he was out on duty last year (thus leaving me home alone). So we joined in on the local celebrations in Yokosuka this time!
Most of the action was by the ports between the US and Japanese Navy bases. There was food and drink stands set up with entertainment.
Towards the end of the day they paraded a Mikoshi through the Honch (bar district) to the festival site. And when I say "they", I mean the local Yakuza (Japanese mafia). Their Mikoshi is very um... tacky festive.
We had a little snack at "Honeybee's" (local "American diner") after watching the Mikoshi parade through. I had a "stick dog", Terry had a "steak taco". Mmmm.
PS, the Bud went for about $7...
The Yakuza made their way to the site by the time we returned. They were all scattered and heavily drinking, obviously. :D
Japanese fire control. :)
And then all the sudden close to midnight everyone was packed liked sardines to watch the fireworks and countdown to 2010.
Wooo! Happy 2010~ To the left is the Japanese base, and the right is the American base. :D
We weren't quite done yet so we stopped by in a bar, and the drinks were half off! AWESOME. I think Terry ordered the biggest drink he could find.
On the way home we stopped and had a "Taliban Taco" to soak up some of the liquor since we hadn't had a proper dinner. Umm... Taliban Taco is incredibly racists but that's what EVERYONE calls it here... Delicious, I don't really care what it is, but, the proper term is "gyro". The poor Sailors will have no idea what you'll mean if you call it that, though... Ummm...
And to top the night morning off, pizza and champagne! (this was a desperate attempt to soak up alcohol and not be drunk the next day, lol).
The next morning/well, um... same day, tee hee, we decided to head to a shrine with friends (Rick and Amy!). In Japan one of the customs is to visit a shrine within the first three days of the New Year... you'll see how we messed up on that one!
Anyway, starting in the morning there was a local Taiko drum performance by the train station. Very cool.
We headed for Asakusa, which has a very famous shrine, Sensō-ji, being the oldest in Tokyo.
Upon arrival you see the "Golden turd" which is above the Asahi Beer Building... very unfortunate nickname...
But when we got there the lines...........................................................................................................................................................were the longest I've ever seen. OMG.
We never made it inside. We would have had to wait all day.
We found some fun in the crowd, though. Lol.
So instead we decided to ditch the Japanese tradition (our mistake for going to one of the most important temples in Japan), and eat Shabu Shabu!
Shabu-shabu is thin slices of meat that are swished in VERY HOT liquid, usually water flavoured with seaweed and veggies, and then dipped in a sauce and eaten instantly. It's SOOOOO good.
We had a lot of fun there because we wear allowed to sit on the tatami mats... in Yokosuka they never allow us to do that for some reason... hmm. lol.
Shopping around the shrine... lots of tourist trinkets but very cool and pretty.
Beer vending machine in the middle of it all... a guy's dream (and well, any drinker's). They don't let us have those in Yokosuka (or America) because the Sailor's abuse them. >:|
Since our plans were busted we headed back on the subway...
Then the train again... it was a long trip...
To Shinjuku!
But everything was closed because of the New Year. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of stores open because New Year's sales are like our "Black Friday" sales, but the places we wanted to visit were closed. :(
The Christmas light display was totally worth the trip, absolutely beautiful in person.
But Krispy Kreme was open! Totally worth the long wait in line (did I mention there is only a handful on Krispy Kremes in Japan and there is ALWAYS a wait?) and a free doughnut! Mmmmmm.
But soon we had to leave Shinjuku...
And return home... Our plans totally failed, but I think we had fun nonetheless of the total fail, lol.