Crashing back to reality...

Well the holiday is over and I'm back to work. I'm actually happy to be back-the holidays give me more free time than I know what to do with. I actually spent the entire last day sitting on the couch playing videogames and watching TV. I think I was starting to vegetate.

A couple of more things about New Years in Japan. It may be the biggest holiday in Japan, but most people seem to spend it at home rather than going out like we tend to do in North America. The traditional celebration seems to involve watching TV. If you're a man then you'll probably be watching either Pride or K-1 fighting and if you're a woman then you'll probably be watching Kohaku (sic) on the NHK channel (sort of similar to our CBC.) How watching ultimate fighting became a New Year's tradition in Japan I'll never know.

I also found out that Japanese people aren't nearly as religious as they claim. Before the holidays I asked everyone if they were going to a shrine on New Years and practically everyone said "Yes." But since I returned from the holidays, I've been asking everyone if they went to the shrine and only about 50% have given an affirmative reply.

I found out another little tidbit yesterday about New Years in Japan. Apparently the amount of money they toss on New Years varies from person to person, but many women with throw in 5 yen or 15 yen. The reason for this apparently is that "go en" (five yen) has the same sound as "goen" which apparently means "good relationships" or some foolishness like that. Basically a women will throw in the 5 or 15 yen in hopes that she'll get a boyfriend. This was all news to me and I just finished sending an email to Fumiko demanding to know how much money she threw. I feel like I have been tricked somehow, that maybe 15 yen was thrown without my expressed permission.