New Year's

New Year's in Japan is very different from New Year's in most other countries. If you watch TV on New Year's in the US it usually shows all the parties happening all over the world including Japan where it is usually very quiet. Most people go back to their home towns and eat Osechi, a bunch of traditional Japanese foods with their families. Osechi has many parts and while people used to make it in the past, because of the work and time that it consumes making it more and more people buy it from the store or buy half and make the other half. As a result, most of Tokyo is very quiet/boring around this time with many stores and shops being closed for till the 2nd or 3rd. After the New Year however, the shops that are open have the biggest sales of the year and some also something called a Fukubukuro. Fukubukuro's are bags with a bunch of random stuff from that store in them. The value is supposed to be more than the price but you don't know what is in it.

Anyhow, I watched a movie in the afternoon and at night I headed out to Shibuya where I met up with John and Dave at Hub. Shibuya was very empty and Hub was mostly guys so we left shortly after arriving. We checked out LaGato and then wound up going to Camalot for the count down. On New Year's the trains run all night but only one or two every hour, which is great. John headed home and Dave and I stayed in Shibuya amazed by how empty it seemed. We went to Burger King for the first meal of 2010 and then walked around trying to figure out the next move. We stoped in front of a place called Derori which is a kind of Rock bar where some girl told us to come in so we did. It was kinda weird. There was a guitar, bass, drummer, and a guy on the mic. They weren't really together or really doing anything but some people seemed to really be enjoying it. It almost felt like we had walked into some kind of weird cult. It was a strange but very interesting start to 2010. Then we both headed home around 3 am.