Happy New Year!

2008 is the year of the mouse (rat). We went to a New Year's Eve party (about a 5 minute walk) hosted by some dear friends of ours. We had the best time! The girls actually stayed up until about 1:00 a.m. The wagon picture was taken when we got home at 12:45. This is the first year we've let them be "big girls." We did have to put on a movie for them so that the other big kids could have some peace :) They were so sweet and tolerant of our little ladies, who were wielding toy guns and swords. I have to say I was quite impressed that they all stayed up for New Years. The other kids (5th graders and up) all go to NIS, where the girls will go to school THIS fall :( Their parents were Irish, French, and British. It was wonderful getting to talk to them and spend time with our friends.

Our neighbors, Chie and Kazuko, came by New Year's morning. We got to see them dressed up in their kimonos. They looked absolutely beautiful! They were on their way to a shrine.

Also, on New Year's Day, it snowed! Not for long, but it was still beautiful!

Christmas is celebrated, but New Years is the biggest celebration of the year here. Our friend, Ai, invited us to the Tokyu Hotel for New Year's festivities. We were so excited to be able to take part in some wonderful Japanese traditions. The girls got to watch and help make mochi. Here's a link explaining what it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochi Afterwords, we sampled some foods made from the mochi. We got to see the lion dance. He looked like a dragon to us :) We got to get our picture with him (after quite a bit of coaxing). Supposedly, if he bites your head, you will have good health for the new year, but none of our girls were going to take the chance. We did feed him some money- only Gracie would go with me to make an offering. We got to see traditional Japanese dancers and take part in a tea ceremony. We hope our friends at the Tokyu know how wonderful it was to be a part of the Japanese New Year's traditions! We got to see Akaya-san, who is like a grandfather to us, Niwa-san, Eri-san, Miss Ivana, and of course, Ai-san. Ai also gave each of the girls an envelope with money in it. It is customary to give the children money at New Years. We just can't begin to tell how much fun we had, and how much we appreciate all that our special Tokyu friends mean to us!

We also received wonderful news from Ai - she is engaged. We are looking forward to her wedding in March!!! We couldn't be happier for her! She has taken such wonderful care of us!

Miss Ivana told us she would be going home to Brazil at the end of March. We are so happy that she will get to be close to her family, but we will miss her so much!

After the Tokyu, we went to Fushimi to the Hard Rock for lunch. The girls were given some adorable little bears by our waitress. She and one of the managers remembered us from when we were staying at the Tokyu - so sweet.

After lunch, we went back to Sakae and went to the huge 100 yen store there. The 100 yen stores are awesome :)

We then made our way to Nagoya Station to see the lights. The girls were very tired by this point, but trudged along (oh, how we heard about it though). We watched the trains come and go out of Nagoya Station. Izzy loves to watch the Shinkansen! Then at 5:00 the lights came on, and Sophie said, "This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!" That was the icing on the cake :)

We found out that so many businesses take off from January 1st-3rd. I went out last night after we got home, and almost everything was closed, and there were very few cars on the street. A big difference from earlier in the day when we were downtown. It is just impossible to describe how many people there were, both on the street and on the subways.

As you can probably tell, we just love it here! We are delightfully overwhelmed with all the wonderful experiences we're having :)

We love and miss all of you in the States!
~Michelle