New Year's Eve

Posted on 2006/01/01 03:04:34 (January 2006).

[Saturday 31st December]
Over the past couple of days Chie and I had had some disagreement over how to spend New Year's Eve. Chie initially wanted to go for a more traditional Japanese New Year's Eve (visiting Buddhist temples before midnight, and Shinto shrines afterwards) whereas I favoured the more Western approach of well, basically, drinking.

So as a compromise between the West and the Far East, we ended up sticking a pin in the map roughly inbetween, and going out for Indian food. We went over to Ikebukuro and had intended to go to Rohlan (my favourite Taiwanese restaurant) but found it was closed. Chie and I have a particularly bad habit of getting into arguments when we can't find anywhere to eat, so I was very concerned to come up with an alternative ASAP. I was convinced there must be an Indian restaurant somewhere around there, and after a few minutes of anxious wandering my suspicions were confirmed. We found a branch of a small chain called "Great India". The food was in fact great, and very reasonably priced (Indian food is often quite expensive in Japan). So this backup plan turned out to be a minor success.

After this both Chie and I realised we didn't have much in the way of enthusiasm for doing anything else. So we decided not to bother visiting any temples (either of the Buddhist variety, or shrines to the great god of beer), and basically just went back home for a quiet night and watched some DVDs.

I remember that New Year's Eve was pretty much a family thing for me during my stay in Japan. We had a big meal and we spend midnight bowing and wishing each other (all sat in seiza in a big circle) best wishes for the coming year.
I quite liked it for a change, but I still think that Hogmany it's a better way to spend the last night of the year! :)

Posted by Lox at 2006/01/02 08:51:25.

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