Happy New Year!

A very Happy New Year to everyone! May your New Year be blessed with happiness, health and luck.

Similar to the chinese horoscope, at the strike of 12 a.m this morning, the Japanese ushered in the year of the wild boar and I had the previlege to spend my last Japanese New Year, the JAPANESE way.


摩耶 (Maya), my japanese labmate invited me over to her house for an unforgettable new year. We had a great 鍋 (Steamboat) and 毛蟹　(hairy crab) for dinner. After which, 摩耶 drove me to 京都 (Kyoto) to meet her boyfriend and together we went for the countdown while temple hoping.

Our first stop..知恩院(Shionin)..

To catch a glimpse of this huge bell amist the sea of people.

A group of monk ringing the bell 108 times to symbolize the beginning of the new year.

Countroling the movement of the huge trunk was no easy job

And a photo of me calling Malaysia at 1 a.m Japan time...

Maya and me in Yasaka Jinja (It was a freaking cold night...only 2 degrees celcius)

The sea of people in Yasaka jinja... waiting to throw the coin and make a wish.

We finally made it home at 4 am and went to bed at 5 am. And in the morning, I woke up to a lot of delicious japanese new year delicacies. The photo below shows the main dish.

And the side dish...

More side dishes

And more..

And more...

There were 2 more but I was too busy eating to take anymore photos... and the photo .. my name written in Japanese (The paper holder of my New Year chopsticks)

And after breakfast it was another trip to the Shrine with Maya's family. Another sea of people.

And finally... "Ang Pow" (New Year token)..from Maya's mum.

I had a wonderful New Year at Maya's house this year. A great way to understand more about the Japanese culture and to get to know Maya's family. I am really lucky to have found Maya as a friend and she is such an angel (Hmm, a rather rough angel though!). The language was definitely no barrier to our friendship. I will miss you...

On a different note,

2006, had been an extremely fast year. I basically have no recollection of what happened.. I think I spent most of my time in the lab and neglected a lot of things. So in 2007, I will be making changes to my life. I will be leaving Japan and going back to Malaysia, which also means that I will be leaving the academic field and enter into the working society again. I will also be spending more time with myself and people important to me. It will be a soul and career searching year for me. A year full of changes.. and hopefully for the better....