Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Photos - Amami Oshima
Thursday, January 04, 2007
It's 5.30pm!
Every evening at 5.30pm, the PA system in my bf's neighbourhood will play a short music, followed by an announcement with the above song as background. The recorded announcement goes something like this: "It's 5.30pm now. Children who're playing outside, it's time to go home. Those working, you've worked hard for the day."
The PA system will also play a short music at 12 noon, but w/o announcements.
Quite an interesting system they have here. Sometimes I'll nuah until i hear the music, then i'll prepare lunch/dinner coz by the time it's ready, my bf's home.
On New Year's day at 10am, they played some traditional folk songs for a while. There was also an announcement inviting villagers to go to the community hall for party, free-of-charge.
These announcements and parties are apparently done only in countryside/villages in Japan. I don't remember hearing such announcement in Okazaki/Seto. Hmm....imagine S'pore having such a system.... every evening play announcement asking school children to go home.....
Happy New Year!
In Japan, 1st Jan is like Chinese New Yr to the chinese people. Big thing here! Shops close early on 31st Dec and don't open till 2/3 Jan. Some even close till 8 Jan. During this period, most japanese will go back to their hometown to visit their relatives. Visiting is done during the first 3 days of the New Year. So how did I celebrate the New Year here?
We had steamboat dinner at home with my bf's colleague & wife on 30 Dec. We used soya bean milk (unsweetened, of course!) + sesame with soya bean soup base. As we've had an overdose of meat during our Xmas dinner, this time round we ate mostly vegetables. O-i-shi-i!! *we were so busy eating that we forgot to take pic of the steamboat "in action"*
We had planned to have a nice romantic New Year Eve.....go fishing, then wait for the sunrise.....BUT the stupid weather spoilt everything. Rain Rain Rain! We ended up supermarket shopping (again! but we like it...hehehe) then watched vcd at home. Watched till 12am, wished each other Happy New Yr with hugs, then continued with our vcd. So that's our New Yr celebration in the end.
1st Jan was spent nuahing at home in the morning followed by sightseeing in the afternoon. Rainy but we managed to take some photos.
2nd Jan was like a normal day coz he went on a bird-watching trip which i have no interest in. So it's nuah at home for me again. At night we finally ate "soba noodles" for dinner. It's supposed to be eaten on 31st Dec midnight but....
Yesterday we went to his uncle's place in the afternoon. The design of the house is very traditional, very japanese-style! Very old but lovely home. His aunt was very hospitable. From the moment we arrived, she served us light snacks, then followed by traditional New Year food (pork & chicken soup), then more dishes....and finally rice to go with it! We wanted to leave before dinner time but she had prepared our share for steamboat dinner so we continued eating all the way till almost 9pm.
That's our 3 days of New Year. He's back at work tdy while i'm nuahing at home......