Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu! (Happy New year!!)

Okay it’s been a while since my last report and a lot has happened since then. So Ill try to put the events together in the order I remember them happening. First of all it’s been getting colder and colder, and what I have come to discover in Japan is that unlike Florida, where most of the year its either warm or hot and the trees don’t change color, the four seasons in Japan are clearly seen. And now that autumn has ended and taken with it the bright red and yellow color of the trees and left behind leaf less trees and green pine trees. And yesterday for the first time this year it snowed. It wasn’t the first time I see snow, but it has been a long time since I saw it so I immediately ran outside when it started snowing to only be laughed at by family because it only lasted for about 5 minutes but I was more than satisfied.

Now that I’m done with the weather talk lets forward on to the Japanese holidays. First of all Christmas, well to explain Christmas as strange as it may be I have to explain a little about the Japanese writing system. You see the Japanese have three types of "alphabets" and one of them is used specifically used for writing words of foreign origin and the word "Christmas" is spelled in this alphabet and for good reason too, the Japanese don’t really put much importance on Christmas. Although we weren’t in school a lot of the people in my school spent their Christmas at cram school, doing their club activities or those who weren’t doing that treated it like any other day. But my host family did set up something special, we had a little party in my host father’s karaoke room with tons of food and the whole host family. I gave my whole family presents and they were in shock because in Japan the only present exchanging is from Parents to children. My host father also gave me a present, but the greatest present of all was from my host brother; I had told him about pecan pie and how we ate it around Christmas with family and how I kind of missed it so a couple days before the Christmas party he drove like 2 hours away from were we live to a city where he found a bakery that made pecan pie and bought for me as a Christmas present.

After Christmas I immediately changed host families. I was sad that I had to leave my first family but yet I was happy because the family I’m with right now is so nice, and the funny thing is that it is in the same neighborhood so I can visit the first one time to time. The family right now is composed of my mom, my dad, the friend I use to bike to school with everyday has now turned into my brother, a younger brother of 14 and 2 younger sisters of 12 and 7. This family isn’t rich like the first one but they received me with open arms and my younger sister even gladly gave me her room, and how my host mom also has a job on weekends we all have to help out and the father even makes dinner and cleans the dishes sometimes, it may not sound like much but my first host family was more old fashioned and the first host mother and sister in law use to do everything in the house and just kind of spoil the kids. So I thought it was really cool how I am lucky enough to get to see the life of the Japanese people from 2 different view points even though if it might require some sacrifice.

After Christmas I also experienced "mochi Tsuki" which is the making of rice cakes. What you do is u heat the rice on a weird kind of ancient rice oven on a fire you make outdoors, then you put the rice in a bucket, and two people are needed for the next part (person A and Person B), (A ) holds the giant wooden "rice hammer" it’s the size of one of those construction picks, and they hit the rice as hard as they can with it in order to make mash it and make it like a big ball of mushy rice, (B) the other person in perfect coordination with the other has to keep flip the rice or push it together while (A) lifts the hammer and (B) has to get his/her hands out of the rice before the hammer drops. I did that twice the first time with my first host fathers company and we used 132 pounds of rice. And the second time I went to a "Mochi Tsuki" was with my rotary club where we made it for a institution for mentally challenged adults and children and it felt really good doing something for other people in the holidays.

After that "Oshogatsu" began its kind of like new years but it lasts a lot more than our new years it was like a week of unbelievable eating, meal after meal, for about a week. On the 31^st of December we ate a huge meal at six and we festivated but then at 10 as a Japanese tradition we ate noodles ate 10 at night. And the Japanese have another tradition which is "hatsumode" where you go to the first shrine visit and make your wish for the new year, so when the clock struck twelve we walked to the nearest shrine, and their was already a huge line of people lined up, we waited our turn made our wish, talked to some of the neighbors and then went home. And continued eating every day like crazy until the 7^th of January when I woke up to find that my host mother had made "nanakusa" or 7 leaves which another Japanese tradition, in order to clean the system and give the stomach some rest from the new years eating you eat a rice with vegetables and 7 kinds of different leaves in it. It wasn’t my favorite food but m host mother took the time to make it so I just ate my portion and that was that. Except for that it seems like the beginning of a great new year

I wish I could send pictures but my families computer takes 25 minutes to turn on so I am afraid if I connect my camera the computer will crash or explode so I cant send anything

And again I want to thank all the people involved in the exchange program my Sponsor club Davie/cooper city, and hope all you guys around the world enjoyed your holidays as much as I did.

-Alejandro Uribe