Well, 2013 is here! Despite thinking that 2012 is a much cooler number (also I'm probably biased since that's my class), I have high hopes for this year and am looking forward to lots more new and fun experiences! 2012 was a pretty great year (finishing my comps, graduating college, spending one last summer at GHP, moving to Japan, etc etc), so 2013 has a lot to live up to, but I'm sure it will. :)
Sadly my winter break ends with work tomorrow (for just one day, since it's Friday, which seems a little silly), but it was both relaxing and fun! Last Sunday I went to my boss's house to make mochi in the morning (read all about it here!) and then went to Sosa for a bounenkai with friends, which was pretty great. I always love seeing other people's apartments, and this friend's place is probably the coolest I've been to, with a super high ceiling and a loft to sleep in! I ended up spending the night there since I didn't want to mess with delayed trains again (yay, I learned!), and then headed back to Chiba after some brunch the next morning.
From there it was off to another friend's house for New Year's Eve! It was a much smaller gathering (only three of us), but we had a lot of fun watching Kouhaku, or rather Kouhaku Uta Gassen, which is a music show that happens every New Year's Eve and is (or used to be, says Wikipedia?) apparently one of the most watched shows on Japanese TV. It's basically a contest between the red team, mostly female artists, and the white team, mostly male artists, who perform alternately. Thanks to technology, nowadays people watching from home can vote from their TVs, but we couldn't figure it out so we just kept tally by ourselves. It was a great way to see which artists are popular now (because I have no idea, though my friend knew almost everyone!) and also super entertaining with occasional strange costumes.
Kouhaku lasted until just before midnight, whereupon a lot of the artists who were there promptly moved to a different set to do a different show that started right after! After midnight, we went to bed (in her kitchen! Exciting.), with the intention of getting up to see the sunrise at Port Tower. Which didn't happen. Oops!
Then the rest of New Year's Day and the next morning/afternoon were spent thoroughly cleaning my apartment, which was definitely needed and useful but boring, before hanging out with Cory at his apartment (and playing LEGO Lord of the Rings, which was awesome!).
Today I had my first frisbee practice of the year, in which we passed the frisbee 2013 times in our drills! Though to be honest we probably did more than 2013 passes, but anyway it was super fun. We had practice in the Izumi Nature Park, which is apparently where they had practices back when the team was first formed. It's a place you can only really get to by car, which is a real shame because it's a big, gorgeous place that really feels full of nature! Maybe someday I'll take the 45-minute bus ride from Chiba Station (keep in mind that this place is still inside Chiba City!) and explore a little bit more, because it was really quite nice.
So tomorrow is back to work as usual, but I'm leaving a little bit early to go check out the new exhibit at the Chiba City Museum of Art (before going to their opening reception, even though I have absolutely nothing to do with it this time) and then afterward is a 新年会 (New Year's party) with my coworkers and the International Association! Should be fun. :)
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