Happy New Year!!

Last year on New Year's Eve, having just arrived on Okinawa a week earlier, I think we were still too shell shocked to get out and do anything. But our boys went to a church New Year's dance, and then stopped by the Futenma Shrine on their way home. From the pics, it looked like they had an awesome time.

This year, I wanted in on the action. We met with some friends just down the road at Ft. Buckner and walked up to the shrine, hoping to get to ring the gong.



This kind of a scene really floats my boat!



I love all the colors...and the abundance. Gorgeous!



Mmm...this is what I'm havin'.



There's that Anpanman again!



The boys played a fishing game (at 500Y a pop) and won these little plastic guns that shoot little plastic balls. Joy. I mean, what says "Happy New Year" like pretending to kill each other?



Coree chose corn. I told her to hold it up so I could get a picture (of the cops standing behind her so that they wouldn't know I was taking their picture).



We finally made it to the shrine and...SUCCESS! We are number 57. This means we get to ring the gong the 57th out of 108 times. 108 times to ring out the 108 sins of man. I wonder which sin #57 is? I'm just sayin'...if I have to ring a gong to cast out a sin, I'd like to know if it was a "good" one.



Patrick chillin' with some of his peeps.



OK, kids...remember...bow, gong, bow...hold onto the rope so it only rings once...or else the dragon will appear and eat us all.



"GONG!"



Bow...sort of.



The Mierzejewskis are back! It was a real treat to run into them here.



Then the clock struck 12. Happy New Year, Joneses!



Happy New Year, Stuarts!



After ringing the gong on the Buddhist side...we walked over to the Shinto side to get our fortunes for the new year.







First, we stood in a line to buy a little wooden plaque as a memento...



"Which trinket shall we choose?"

Since we can't read any of them...we just go with the picture.






Then we headed past the people waiting to throw a coin and pray for good fortune...



So that we could pay 100Y and read our fortunes.























I've heard conflicting stories on this one. I've been told:

(1) You have to tie your fortune to the rope or else the good fortunes will leave you and the bad ones will stick with you.

(2) If you don't like your fortune, you leave it there by tying it on the rope and it won't come to pass.



At any rate, they were vague enough that we felt pretty confident in leaving them tied to the rope.



We walked back to where we parked Lopez...



Which meant we had to walk past more tasty treats. We bought a box of these things. They look kind of like McGriddles from the outside. We'll see what's inside.







And who can resist a melon slushie?



Goodbye 2009!



We got home around 1 AM, but had to do our traditional Stuart New Year's Eve toasts. This year we had some Japanese treats to go along with our Sparkling Grape Juice. Remember these tasty treats? They have a lump of sweetish, red bean paste in the middle. I can appreciate different cultures and tastes...but haven't we ALL evolved to chocolate by now? I'm just sayin'.



And Jake HAD to have Mochi balls...rice pounded into rubbery, gelatinous, sort-of-sweet balls, sometimes with bean filling. I'm not a huge fan (MAJOR texture issues here) but some of the kids like them. Jake made them last year on New Year's Day at a combined Japanese/American Cub Scout activity...so he felt he needed to honor that memory.



"To our family!"



"To our first year on Okinawa!"



"To our friends!"

"To a healthy, happy and prosperous 2010!"

Happy New Year!