明けまして、おめでとうございます。

明けまして、おめでとうございます= Happy New Year!
今年もうよろしくお願いします= Please continue your good will towards me this year.

The above statements are formal greetings at each new year.
Of course, all my young friends say あけおめ, utilizing the shortened version, a very common trend in Japanese language. (笑)

I have begun this post with a picture of Kyoto Tower in the early morning, taken at Kyoto Station, after arriving to Kyoto after a long 8 hour bus ride from Tokyo (which we got on after having just ridden a 2 hour bus from Mito to Tokyo.)

It has been quite some time. Everyone here has been occupied with reports and traveling over the holidays. I had the opportunity to visit Kyoto and Oosaka over the holidays. I would like to take the opportunity to post some photos of the trip and also post some pictures of some other interesting sites over the course of the past year that I did not have the opportunity to post sooner. My recap will be spread over a few posts. I would also like to devote a later post to Oosaka, since I really like Oosaka (although I only got to spend a few hours there).


Here is a ph0to of 清水寺（kiyomizudera), a temple in Kyoto.




At 清水寺, we were able to see the Kanji of the Year. The exchange students and I were expecting to see a crazy Kanji that we never learned, but we were suprised to see a familiar kanji, 新. Although this is unrelated, the craziest kanji that the exchange students and I have come across so far is the kanji for depression, 鬱 (utsu). Many Japanese students have confessed that they have difficulty remembering how to write this kanji. After hearing this, one of the Fresno exchange students commited himself to learning how to write this kanji. He has done so successfully, so it is funny to see his notebook which has the kanji for 'depressed' written all over it.


Here is a picture of the sign of the bus we took from Tokyo to Kyoto. It had a very cute name, Seishun (youth) Dream.



Look how beautiful this looks! We turned on a random sidewalk and this beautiful site came out of nowhere! This is Kyoto early in the morning.

~Now for a brief recap~


Thanks to one of the Tokiwa Senseis, we had the opportunity to visit Ginza in Tokyo and watch a piece of a Kabuki play. This is a photo of the outside of a 歌舞伎座, a kabuki theatre. The play was very interesting, although I did not understand the language. Many fans in the audience called out the actors' names during the play, which I was very surprised to see. It seems that Japanese people are allowed to be involved in the Kabuki play, which is completely opposite from my experience at the Japanese movie theatres, where you are not supposed to clap or verbally interact with the movie (even if the movie is really good).


Here is a lucky picture I got of Mt. Fuji while riding a bus to Tokyo. Before this bus trip, I had only taken the train to Tokyo. It was truly an experience to ride the bus from Mito to Tokyo, because I had the opportunity to see the vast variety of buildings and streets.



These pictures are of old (throughout history) Japanese money. I wish I could explain it to you, but these heirlooms were shown to us by our friend's father whose family has heritage in the Tokugawa shogunate, and the Japanese he used was far too high level for my understanding.

Since I promised I would eventually post a picture of a Japanese style toilet, I will end this post with a picture of a Japanese toilet, the only type of toilet available after exiting the plane at Narita airport...although fancy western style toilets are widely available elsewhere in Japan.