New year in Japan at Shimizu's

First of all, happy year of the pig to you all. I waited til now to put up this post as if I celebrated Chinese New year with the people in the pictures below. Well, most of you might not know them, so let me introduce them to you. hmm... guess I would consider them my family in Oita. The girl sitting in the front right of the picture is Chie, she and I go a long way back. She works in Vancouver. I got to know her about 3-4 years ago through a friend of mine. Because we are both busy, we have not really hung out much when I was in Vancouver. I met both her sisters when they visited Vancouver about 2 years ago. I took them to Gastown one day during their visit. I thought I would probably never see them again after that.

Coincidentally, I was assigned to teach in Oita, where Chie is from. Therefore, she gave me her parents contact in Oita. Thus the story begins.......

Not long after I arrived Oita, I contacted Chie's parents. Now, once in a while I would go visit them at their house whenever I teach at a school near where they live. A very nice couple. I feel very fortunate to get to know them. Chie, as mentioned, works in Vancouver, and both her sisters work in Toyota City, Aichi prefecture, so they don't come home very often. So, I actually meet up with their parents most often, hehe.

On new year's day, I was invited to their house for new year's dinner. They had everything from sushi to seafood. Yum, yum, I was so full!

Oh yeah, they even had barbeque. This really reminded me of when I was in Taiwan, my family would always go to relatives house for gathering. Ah, I miss Chinese new year.....
The next day, I was invited again to their family karaoke. It was a very interesting experience. Those of you from Taiwan would know what I am talking about.

There is a kind of place in Japan called 'snacku', which is like an open karaoke bar, with mama san. People from the older generation really enjoy going to snacku. There is a mama san serving you drinks, and giving you compliments about your singing. To top it all, everyone who is there would dance with each other to people's singing.

The one I went to was quite small, about the size of one bedroom. Chie, her sisters and I were the youngest ones there. So, it was an evening of me dancing to enka演歌 with people my parents age, while being complimented by a mama san, with very heavy makeup, about how good my English pronunciation is....

All in all, I can't thank the Shimizu family enough for giving me a fun and different new year. I was the only foreginer left in my apartment building during Christmas and new year, so I thought I was going to have a quiet and lonely new year. So, thank you again Chie and the Shimizu family!!!