Silence?!

I drive almost everyday, to school, to grocery shopping, to almost everywhere
since I came back my hometown.

Beginning of my life in Vancouver, I felt scared people honked a lot.
I couldn't believe it when one of my friend told me Vancouverites (people in
Vancouver) honk less than Montrealers (people in Montreal) .

Compare to that, I think it's really quiet on the road in Japan.
For the first time in 3 months, I heard a car honk
Isn't it incredible? Of course, I haven't honk for many years.

I asked my sister what kind of situations she honked, she took long time to say
an answer...

When she drives narrow roads or tight parking lots and other car coming from
other side, one of them moves out of the way or clear the lots, they honk short
and soft as "Thank you" or "I moved already" when they can't see each other or
the sign.

It may be a reason why I don't hear honks because I live in very countryside
although I drive route 1 and one of the arterial road around the Izu area.
(Izu is area name that my hometown is in and also very famous for hot springs
and sightseeing so people come from all over Japan)

I don't think all Japanese people is patient, but still we avoid using honk I
guess.

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year

It's been 4 years since I was in Japan on New Year's Eve to New Year.

New Year is family thing like Christmas in Canada.
Most of companies in Japan have Winter Holidays around New Year.
It's from December 29 to January 3rd, start working on 4th this year.
All family member get together and spend time with family at home or going for pray at shrine, not going for drinking or partying.

As usual, my sister and I were talking and watching TV counting down to New Year,
then we were heading to bed right away

My brother who lives in Shimane prefecture (West side of Japan, it takes 8 hours by train from here to where he lives) and his wife came to see us.
He got married last year when I was in Vancouver, so this is the first time I saw his wife

He said it was snowing when they left Shimane and it was really cold.
They were happy it's warm and nice weather here.

My dad were excited to see them.
He said he grew lots of vegetables because he expected they would come to see him around New Years day

I was little bit nervous because I was going to see my brother's wife for the first time
It found out that we are same age then I felt we got close

She asked me and my sister about how my brother was when he was young, so I showed old pictures and talked about old days...

I'm glad that she is so nice and cute Seeing our new family member is great
I felt great spending time with family on New Years Day.
It was great start of 2011

2011 will be great year to all

Good bye 2010! Bring me a great 2011!!!

It is New Year's Eve already!!! How time flies!

We clean up whole house before new year comes like spring clean up in Canada.
Also we clean up grave too after that, offering of flowers and incense and pray for them.
So our ancestors can have fresh start in new year.

Followed the tradition, I cleaned up my room and house, went to grave and cleaned.
After that, we cooked some of traditional New Year dishes called "Osechi".
Our family don't cook all the dishes for Osechi you can check detail on wikipedia....




According to weather forecast, most of places in Japan is snowing and very cold,
but here, my hometown is warm and clear up, nice weather today.


So many things were happened to me in 2010, met wonderful people and had great experiences,
big decision was made and came back to Japan.

I appreciate the miracle that I met you, being friend with me.

Hope everyone's 2011 will be full of joy, fun and happiness