Happy New Year 2010

Happy 2010 to everyone, or in Japanese, あけましておめでとうございます (or alternatively あけておめでとうございます). May 2010 be a happy, healthy, and prosperous year for you. I’m not sure what the year has in store for me – lots of variables at play. But we will see. I hope that I can do better with the blog than I did in December.

I have not spent enough New Year’s in Japan to know how these recent years compare to the past. My expectation is that New Year’s is a family time, and many shops and restaurants are closed. This morning I went out and about to check out the fresh snow and much to my surprise, my local Starbuck’s was open. Yeah! I was hungry. While I feel bad that they had to work, it was nice getting an easy breakfast, especially since I didn’t have any food at home. I’m guessing that in recent years, more and more shops and restaurants stay open on New Year’s to catch all the other workers that are off. As for me, I’m planning on laying low, although we will see as the day wears on. I suspect jetlag may be the controlling influence of the day.

One Japanese custom is to send out New Year’s cards, or 年賀状 (ねんがじょう, nengajou). Of course, I don’t. But I don’t send out Christmas cards either. The idea is to get ALL the cards delivered on New Year’s Day. So that means the post office is jammed with these cards. I even got some this year. Apparently there is a day that you have to get them submitted so that they can be sorted and ready for delivery. I got cards from businesses and friends. I guess I’m becoming more integrated! Wikipedia, has a good description of New Year’s customs. I stumbled across a Japan Post moped filled with 年賀状.

 

And the office building next to me was decorated with traditional 門松 (門松, kadomatsu).

 

As with last year, my New Year’s transportation was not without difficulty. This should not come as a surprise though. In general, this trip has not been transportationally easy. My flight arrived late to Narita, and security to get from one international flight to another was backed up. A family of 5 was kind enough to let me in front of them since they had 4 hours until their flight. I got to the departure screens and saw my flight had been advanced by 20 minutes and was on-time. I hurried to the gate, and the sign said “boarding” but all the queues were blocked off. I still had 9 minutes to spare. I wild-eyedly went to the counter to see if I could board. Ah, but the flight has been delayed due to weather in Nagoya. The fact that every sign indicated otherwise was a bit confusing.

Our flight, originally scheduled for 5:50 pm, advanced to 5:30 pm (how can they do that?) was now going to leave after 7:00 pm, maybe. The weather in Nagoya had an advisory for heavy snow and gale. Nice. Things didn’t look good. I did a little pacing and then came back to see people queued. I found out that the airline would allow us to take the train in lieu of our flight. I prefer the train anyway, so I hopped at the chance. And I waited in line. It was probably about 7:15 pm or later before I was processed. I then had to clear immigration, pick up my bags, clear customs, and catch a train. All possible. I went down to baggage claim and saw everyone processed before me still waiting. Not a good sign. I waited a while and struck up a conversation with a guy from Indianapolis and a Japanese guy returning from Thailand. The J-guy was very helpful to us.

By the time we got our luggage, there were no more Narita Express trains. Drat! The best we could do was take a local express at 8:08 pm and get to Tokyo Station around 9:35 pm. Then we’d have to take a Shinkansen (slower Hikari instead of the fastest Nozomi) at 10:00 pm, arriving Nagoya at 11:49 pm. Just in time for the New Year.

Our local train was empty for quite a while except for the Nagoya refugees. J-guy and I both had iPhones. About midway through the local train, we checked the status of our flight and learned that it had taken off at 8:06 pm. Say what? They actually left before WE did! How did that happen and how did the airline not know? So while the passengers who chose not to hop over to the train were probably home and in bed, we were still chugging down the tracks.

Still, I’m glad I went for the sure thing, because the outcome could have been a lot different. I just wanted to get home. I bought a round of beers for my travel companions and we toasted the approaching new year and J-guy laughed at everything I said in Japanese. Not in a mean way, more in a tall beer on an empty stomach sort of way.

I got home almost exactly at the stroke of midnight. It was snowing heavily and I was inspired to take a few pictures. I love when it snows.

 

 

Last night I made sure I shut my alarm off, because I knew that once it went, that would be it – I’d be up because of jetlag. I was able to successfully turn off my alarm for Saturday. Unfortunately, today is Friday. Oh well. So I was up and went for a walk to check out the snow. It was still around although now it is melting quickly.

 

 

Unfortunately, even the snowmen smoke here.

 
 

The gas saga

I’m please to report that my gas was restored in LA the day before my departure. I am no longer at risk of blowing up the entire building. I’ll be interested to see what my gas bill looks like.

This is definitely NOT what you want your gas pipe to look like:

The elbow joint is completely corroded and basically disintegrated when the plumber got to that area. No wonder I had a big leak. All I have to do is deal with a small hole in the driveway. I guess I’ll be working that from abroad. Oh, and for all you people who are reading this blog looking for vacationers to rob, I do have someone living at my place so don’t bother.