Happy New Year! We were able to stay up till about 9pm last night. At least today we can watch the ball drop on times square, on CNN. We have done a bit of exploring on foot and via train. There is a massive amount of shopping here and it seems to be the national pastime; dressing up (in the most unsuitable footwear, ie high, pointy heels) and going out shopping. I was often overwhelmed by going to the mall back home. This particular area seems to be miles of shops and stores, in every direction, above ground, below ground, everywhere! And it seems you can get anything, if you're willing to be pay the price. We also explored the area of the school and the touristy area of the harbor, with the shops, restaurants and cruise ships. I have gotten groceries from 4 different places, just to see what each has. We even ate out at a Japanese restaurant down by the harbor. We just said "lets do it and see what we get". It turned out pretty good. The people here are very nice and helpful, especially when they can see that you know nothing. Today is New Year's day and nearly everything is closed except for convenience stores and some coffee shops. Everyone is out going to the shrines. We went to 2, each quite different in atmosphere. The first was closer to home. The line was pretty long. They were giving out free sake and had a couple food stands and the trinket and fortune telling stand. The other shrine seemed more commercial and the atmosphere was more like a carnival. There were lots of food stands and toy stands as well as the fortune stands. I bought something that looks like an arrow. I don't know what its for, but everyone was buying them. Some people were throwing them away afterward. We didn't get the fortune paper, no way to know what it said. I'm going to try to attach some photos. If anyone reading this knows about the arrow thing (or any of the rest of it), please feel free to enlighten me.
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