Haaaaaaappy new year!!!
How did you all welcome twenty sixteen? I made it home to Ehime, just in time to watch Kohaku with the family and wake up at the crack of dawn to climb a mountain to see the first sunrise.
My sister and I huffed and puffed our way up a small mountain. I did not expect to be exercising this early in the year but it felt really good. We made good time and made it to the top with a few minutes to spare, which we spent hopping around, waiting for the sun to rise above the clouds. We watched as the tips of the clouds started to glisten like caramel. Then suddenly the first light burst above the clouds and it instantly warmed our faces. That sun, so dramatic!
I had a really fun time at home with the family. This year my sister came with her fiance and I suddenly realized that having the whole family together will come further and further apart. I guess that’s the whole point of “leaving the nest.” But that still doesn’t stop me from yearning for more time together. (Or maybe it’s just the holiday sentiment?)
This year should be very interesting, with family dynamics changing and work being more challenging than ever. But I am excited! Something about the new year that makes me optimistic! (Yes, even more than I already am…ha.)
I’m looking forward to exploring new places, even if just around the corner, and learning new things. I’m also going to continue practicing my skate boarding and maybe take up running again. I feel so much better after exercising. And more than anything, I’m going to appreciate the people around me and make sure they know that I care. I hope to make this year meaningful 🙂
What are you looking forward to this year? xx
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– My nengajo this year.
– We’ve all experienced it, right?
– This reminds me that I need to read more often.
– Ha! Remember this song?
– A do-for-yourself-at-least-once-a-year list.
– Tokyo in these photos.
Kaori Square Feet 
Those New Year cards are great. They are sophisticated and elegant while also being fun-loving and humorous (and a little goofy as monkeys can be).
I have never recovered from my reverse culture shock after coming back to the States. For one thing, I just don’t understand the hostility Americans have for each other.
Seeing that song video made me wonder what Hanson looked like in 2015 but when entering the date in the search engine I made a mistake. Instead of putting in 2015 I accidentally typed 2050.
Those night photos taken in Tokyo had me going for the longest time. I kept trying to find where in Tokyo some of the identifiable ones were located and seen in daytime. This one was pretty close to where you work. It’s on Koshu Kaido just in front of and to the right of Bunka Women’s University, here.
I just got some delicious dried persimmons in the mail today so maybe this would be appropriate as an illustration to a Happy New Year!
I wonder. Do you think that if you kept in something like this all of the New Years cards you receive, that your 2016 would turn out to be as fun as a barrel of monkeys?
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I just can’t get this right. Now it looks like I’ve got three of the Hanson grandkids in 2150.
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I will say 2016 has been good so far! Hopefully I will be able to achieve my goals and it will be a great year for all of us. God bless us all.
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Happy (belated) New Year! I really liked the nengajo I found for this year, too. It was so festive that I framed one for my apartment 😀
I hope this year is filled with fun (maybe some monkey-ing around?) and good vibes for you!
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I hope you achieve your goals as well! It will be an interesting year, no doubt. Best wishes to you! 🙂
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Live tweeting Kohaku was a first for me. Even though I usually watch Gaki no Tsukai, I was at the local yakitori shop and watched Kohaku. Was fun but way too much drinking.
As I said, culture shock still hovers around a couple points and several of them concurrently. Need to keep myself sane by huddling in a small ball muttering to myself. 😀
That song should be stricken from the earth. I hated it then and hate it now. All I can say is that I was too old for it then and still can't listen to it without wanting to rip my ears out. 😉
Happy New Year!
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What is it about Gaki-Tsuka that makes you keel over laughing every time even though the concept and people are always exactly the same each year? Ha. But live tweeting Kohaku is fun, too, right? 😀
Also, if you can't get drunk on New Years Eve, what is the point? Haha.
PS: Your “rip my ears out” comment had me laughing my head off. That bad, huh?
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I still haven't finished watching Gaki-Tsuka (first time to hear it that way. I always just said gaki). Kohaku was fun but if I wasn't live tweeting, it wouldn't be fun. Still have to watch it again on the big TV.
So were you drunk on NYE?
PS: Yes, it was that bad. There are some songs that really get to me and that is one. I do have guilty pleasures that I don't like to admit that I like, but that is not for the public to know. Plus, it shows my age when I comment on music. 😉
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