お節料理! Osechi Ryori! (New Years feast!) I tried my best to label things that readers wouldn't know by sight maybe. The main focus of the dinner was the crab, but there were many delicious foods! We did make a few things, but mostly it comes in a large stacked box resembling a set platter of food! We separated it into smaller boxes too.

Kamaboko: Processed fish cakes made into loaves and are pretty colors! They have a festive look, don't they? (Left)
Takoyaki: Is a ball shaped snack with a wheat flour-based batter. On the inside is octopus! (Right)

Kinpira Gobou: Carrot and Burdock root (gobou) sauteed together in soy sauce. We made this! Very easy and tasty! (Burdock Root, Left)
Karaage: Basically fried chicken, famous in Oita! (Right)

Tamagoyaki: It's basically scrambled egg made into a loaf and cut in an aesthetically pleasing manner. (Left)
Edamame/Kuromame: Beans! Kuromame are sweet black beans. Edamame are soy beans.

Mochi and Dango: I typically eat it when it's in a sweet/candy form, covered in, or filled with something sweet, but it can be used in soups, or grilled, basically anything. Here is what Wikipedia has to say: "Mochi is Japanese rice cake made of mochigome, a short-grain glutinous rice. The rice is pounded into paste and molded into the desired shape. In Japan it is traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki."Dango is made from a mochiko, related to mochi. Both are very chewy and glutinous!

I drank sake out of a crab head. Apparently that's a thing. According to my host family, crab and sake go hand in hand and I can assure you, they do. Hot sake is best. For the new year, of course there were fireworks. Always fireworks. In Arao, there is an amusement park that shoots of fireworks. We didn't go into the amusement park, but we went to a shrine near it and watched the fireworks from there. They were short, but very pretty. After that we visited the shrine we watched from and asked for good luck/health/fortune for the new year.

On new years day we visited a local shrine. Yotsuyama Shrine which was built nearly 1000 years ago. It's a shrine that has a god for small business owners. So at the beginning of the year many shop owners go there to pray for a good year. It's a small shrine up a small mountain. It's a steep walk, but many elderly people still made it with ease. By elderly I mean like 80 and 90 years old.

Yotsuyama Shinto Shrine

In front of a 5 yen coin!

I prayed for a happy new year for my friends and family, as well as good health! I hope I got that, because the fortune I got said I'd have a bad year with money. I got the worst one for money. Go figure! I hope everyone had a lovely New Years!

 Okay this post will actually be two separate, not consecutive days. But it's fits together.

My host family lives in a mansion (an apartment complex) which has a lovely view of this amazing amusement park called Greenland. At night it is lit up beautifully. Like so. Greenland is a very popular, and a very big amusement park (I'll soon find out) and it is always crowded. In the summer, at least.

On the last day of August which is the last day of summer before school starts there is hanabi (fireworks) set off. So we went to their friends for hot pot, since they have a better balcony view of the fireworks.This marks the last day of summer. Literally, the last day of being crowded.

So, a few days later I went to Greenland with my new friend Mai! She is so cute and fun to hang around with! I had to use my Japanese a lot more since she doesn't speak English. There was literally NO ONE at Greenland and it was wonderful. Still humid and hot, but no lines, nothing.

I played with guinea piggies.

Me and Mai!

There were at least ten different coasters, three haunted houses, two haunted theaters, games and many more! It sorta reminded me of a retro theme park because the rickety sounds were a little ah... unnerving, but I am not dead. I definitely had fun!

Summer break started a month ago actually. To start off I went to Arao to see my host family. They are so sweet. Since my host mother is retired she is often free and can spend time with me. This does not mean she does nothing. She has climbed mount fuji and plans on doing it again. She often meets with friends at a community center to do pottery and crafts. She is very active!

Hiroko

Tatsuo

Every day I woke up at around 8, and she was already up, did laundry and walked around the block with ankle weights. Yet she did not go to bed until midnight or later. I cannot for the life of me figure out when Japanese people sleep and how they are so active.

At Kifune Shrine

We went to a small matsuri (festival) and a ceremony was held. The very decorated woman is Himiko, a queen. I will have to do some more research, but she is supposedly a descendant of queen Himiko whose domain is still in debate. It was a beautiful ceremony with dancing. In the picture above, they are drinking sake (alcohol) out of that massive barrel. Yummm.

And then there were fireworks that topped the Boston 4th of July fireworks. This was a tiny festival. America needs to figure out how to use fireworks better. Every day there is a festival somewhere in the summer time. Japan knows how to party.

The Japanese know how to have a fun summer. HAO (event planning group) put on a summer festival event.

We first made paper fans and played some games with Kanji. We were put into random groups. I just happened to get an all girls group.

After this, we went outside to smash a watermelon then eat it on the ground like savages. A Japanese summer game is called Suikawari, which literally means watermelon splitting. You spin around with a blindfold, much like with a pinata and you have to smash the watermelon while everyone is shouting directions at you.

Next comes fireworks! Little sparklers. There were so many for us to use! Some were bigger than others, but all of them you can get for cheap at convenience stores or corner stores. Like, 50 of them for 500yen (about $5). They are so much fun to use.

Whoever took this picture had a professional camera.

Overall it was a wonderful event and I can't wait for the next event that HAO puts on!