Ōsōji

It's an old Japanese custom to clean the house before the New Year. The Japanese get rid of all the stuff that they don't need anymore, they pay all their debts, settle arguments and so on to start "from the beginning" after New Years Eve.
We had this big cleaning three days ago. Everybody was running around, hanging New Year's decoration, sweeping, washing, arranging and generally going crazy. We changed the bamboo cover for the wells; now it's very nice fresh green color:

We hung various decration; paper, leaves, pine branches (kadomatsu). And of course in every tokonoma we put mochi (rice cakes) and mikan fruit. Afterwards we will eat the mochi in a soup called ozōni:

After cleaning everybody went to a bōnenkai. It's a "forgetting-of-this-year" party. Everybody eats and drinks a lot... We went to a kaiten sushi place near Tondaya and I think I've never ate so much sushi as that night...

The next day wasn't very busy, so in the evening I went with some of my AIESEC friends for yakiniku. It's just "fried meat"; you can fry it yourself on a grill attached to every table. It was tabehōdai (all-you-can-eat), but I'm not a big fan of meat, so I didn't eat a lot. Nevertheless the next day I woke up with the worst stomachache EVER. I couldn't eat a thing; I only made myself some baby food and prayed it wouldn't be too much for my upset stomach. I suffered for a whole day and a part of night, but thankfully today I woke up to find myself in a pretty good shape. I don't think I'll be able to eat yakiniku in the near future though...

Tonight I'm going templing; I'll just go around town in hope of seeing something interesting, and if I'm lukcy maybe see jōya no kane (buddist monks toll a bell 108 times to cleanse all the sins that people commited in the passing year).

Kimono shopping spree

And so this is Christmas... And what have I done? I decided to treat myself today and in the early morning I went to Tenjinsan bazaar around the Kitanotenmangu temple. I was searching for a kimono for a man - a present for my significant other - and encountered some problems:

1. There are more used kimonos for women than men

2. If you find one, it's usually for a very small person (when I say very small I mean 150-160cm)

3. If you find a bigger one it costs a fortune

So I kept searching for two hours, digging through endless mountains of fabric and in the end I was finally able to find something that I think will suit him. I found a juban (undergardments) and an obi, so now I have one set ready. I didn't want to buy a hakama - he'll have to do it himself when he comes here - because I had no idea what would suit him.

For myself I found a ton of stuff. I only buy fudangi (normal, every-day kimono) and I try to find the best materials. I don't like polyester, so the kimonos I have now are either silk or cotton (or hemp-ish... not really sure). I bought 3 kimonos, one haori, one obijime and one juban. Oh. My. Kami-sama. How I am going to ship it all to Poland, I have no idea.
Here are some photos of my kimonos:


On the 22nd I went with Mindy to a Christmas Party to the cafe of her tea teacher (below, me with the said teacher who, appearently, is Santa, Mindy's photo). We had LOTS of food and it was the first time I saw a whole roast turkey as we don't eat it Poland on Christmas. Other than turkey it was, as Mindy said, the most random food I ate for Christmas.
First some gyoza and salad, then pasta, turkey, soup, pizza, etc. I have to agree with her - but everything was delicious (along with my yuzu drink. I am a hardcore yuzu fan) so I was very happy.

The next day we had a quiet Christmas dinner over at Mindy's; mashed potatoes (how I missed that!), salad, lasagne and roast chicken plus obligatory cake. With strawberries that came in a seperate box, wrapped in this stuff that goes "pop". Whole 3 strawberries. Gotta love Japanese packaging...

Kobe!

Yesterday I went to Kobe, mainly for another Pecha Kucha night, but I also did some sightseeing.

Kobe is quite close to Kyoto, but those two cities are very different; the first being a business, culture-mix and harbour city, the second old, high-class, old capital type of atmosphere city. As much as I've come to love Kyoto, my trip to Kobe was quite refreshing. I wandered through the various shopping arcades in the Sannomiya district (I bought 2 pairs of tabi for 500yen! I still can't believe it!) and finally I found a mini China-town (Nankinmachi). It was great; I especially loved all those small stalls with different types of food. I had a manjuu (a steamed bun with meat filling; by the way, it was the first time in weeks that I ate meat!) and zhimaqu (a type of chinese pastry made of rice, sweet bean paste and sesame seeds) I also encoutered some... interesting shops selling "weird stuff" (and that's to put it mildly). First, I came eye-to-eye with gay-santa-football fan Bruce Lee:
Than I found perfect presents for my friends:
YES, that is real.
After spending way too much time in China Town I went to the harbour; it was quite cold, so I ran away pretty fast, but I managed to take some pictures when the light was nice:
After walking around the city for a few hours I took a train to Nishinomiya where the Pecha Kucha Night was taking place and I gave a short speech about my life as an intern student in Tondaya. It was cold outside and warm inside, so my face got all red - everybody thought I was nervous, but that was just the damn heat! Oh, OK, I may have been a little bit nervous...
Other presentations that night were very interesting; everybody was great and I enjoyed this PKN a lot. A pity I won't be there for the next one; it's a week after I'm going back home.

It seems that this week will be quite interesting - lots of parties and good food, so I'm excited. Mindy invited me to a Christmas party at her tea teacher's shop; this will be my first Christmas outside Poland, so I'm a bit down, but then again I always welcome new experiences.

Xmas parties and stuff...

I was at a Christmas party with my Kyodai friends yesterday and drank, ate and tortured the poor souls with my singing. Fotrunately, there were no casualities.
The Japanese invented many good things - long hot baths, karaoke, instant noodles and nomihodai. All-you-can-drink parties can be very entertaining if you're a gaijin. You can drink to your hearts content and be sure you'll be the most sober one.
Other then that, I can't seem to get used to this japanese custom of pouring drinks for eachother. Basically, you have to constantly observe the glass of the person sitting closest to you and make sure it stays full at all times. I usually just get pulled into a conversation and forget about it, resulting in my and my partner's discomfort. And sometimes I have to drink ridiculous amounts of beer or other drinks, because everybody's pouring me...

I came back home, my head slightly fuzzy, and couldn't fall asleep until 2 AM - I guess I crossed that magical barrier when alcohol makes you hyperactive. And I think the fact that I only drank coctails may have added a slight sugar rush to all that...

On Monday I went with Mindy and her friends to Hanatoro; it's a very unique light-up at Arashiyama. It's basically over a 5 kilometer path of various cute lanterns; it was quite beautiful, bur my camera's battery died on me, so I will post some pictures as soon as I steal some from Mindy's facebook page (is it still stealing when the victim agrees...?).
I also learned something new about taboos in Japan - appearently you can't walk and eat at the same time - it's considered very rude, and I do it all the time. I was wondering why all these people stand in front of the supermarkets and eat whatever they bought instead of simply going wherever they were going, but now I get it... But well, I'm a uncultured gaijin, so I guess I'm forgiven. At least I hope so...

Ohisashiburi

"Ohisashiburi" basically means "long time no see" (which, by the way, is a direct translation from chinese hǎojiǔ bùjiàn... it amazes me how the world's languages influence eachother). I haven't written anything in a while, so I figured that it's time to do something about it!

Work has been a bit hectic lately, so I didn't have time to do interesting stuff. New Year's celebrations are coming soon, so we started the "osoji" ("big cleaning"). I was terrified when I had to clean the windows in the house; it's hand-made glass, which is over a 100 years old. And the way to clean it is to take out the whole window (!) and wipe from both sides. I had to be extra-careful...

Thankfully, after New Year we'll have some quiet time and I hope to go around Kyoto for a bit, discover some not-touristy places (it's quite difficult in here...)
It's getting colder (about 12 C), so I'm heading to the sento to warm myself up. Sayonara picture today is kamelia blossoms in the garden: