Happy New Year to all. I see that you have about 40 minutes left in 2008. I have been in 2009 for 13 hours and 20 minutes so far. We just finished our traditional Japanese New Year lunch. There were three lacquer boxes full of goodies, at least goodies for the Japanese palette.

Most of them were very tasty, oishi, but some of them did not meet my excruciating tastes. There were tiny whole crabs cooked in some red sauce. There were whole shrimp, uncooked. A batch of red-orange fish eggs. Salmon wrapped in seaweed.

But there were plenty of wonderful tastes there also. Beans, three types, all sweet and tasty. Ham, eggs, A lovely egg dish rolled with some kind of sauce. And much, much more.

One of the main points of the meal was the beautiful arrangement of the bfood in the lacquer boxes and the arrangement of the table. We ate in the tokanoma room, a formal room in the house. We drank toasts to the new year in sake and another drink. We ate while Wakana's father explained the meaning of each dish. it was a very pleasant time.

Last night we ate traditional soba noodles for supper then had our baths. At 11:30 we drove to the local Shinto shrine to make a new year wish. There were lots of lights and a bonfire to help people keep warm. There weren't very many people there when we arrived but we seemed to be only the first. The line formed up behind us. We had to step up to the altar, drop our wish money into the box, ring the bell, clap our hands, make the wish, bow and clap our hands again. After we made our wishes we stopped to have mochi in red bean soup.

We then drove over the the Bhuddist temple. There we were to ring the temple bell. We were in a line for a long time but finally got up to the platform. Temple bells are shaped differently than western bells. They are more cylindrical and do not have the "bell mouth" we otherwise recognize. This bell was loud and held it's resonance for a long time. It is rung with a long heavy pole hung horizontally and swung using a rope. Each person got one chance to ring the bell.

Oops, Aund Sachiko has arrived. Got to go.