New Year's Holidays.

New Year's in Japan feels like Christmas in the States. Over here, Christmas is only a day to eat a special Christmas cake and if you're of dating age, it's a day you're supposed to go on a date with whoever you are in a relationship with.

So Christmas doesn't have that special feel to it like it does in the States. But New Year's, wow, it's a major major holiday here! Just about EVERYONE in Japan celebrates new years from Dec. 31 to Jan. 3. They eat special meals, put up special decorations, and spend time with family. It's pretty nice.

I got to spend time with my family this New Year's too. We went to Sasayama, which is about 45 minutes or so from our place. Sasayama is a really old town and has a lot of traditional things.

I found the dried persimmons hanging at the storefront interesting, so I took a picture. They were selling steamed red bean paste buns fresh off the steamer here, so my parents bought two. I'm not that big of a fan of red bean paste, so I passed. It looked good though.

After we looked around at several stores, we stopped by a shrine. The Noh stage was open since they had done a play at midnight the night before to celebrate the New Year. It was neat to be able to see the stage so up close. Usually, we can only peek at it through a tiny tiny opening since the stage is normally closed.

Although Japanese people aren't religious for the most part, regardless of beliefs, most people seem to go to shrines or temples for special occasions, such as the New Year's holidays. They make wishes and pray for a good year.

I found a dagashi store (kind of like an old-fashioned candy store) and thought it was cute, so I got a picture of it. All round things hanging in front are paper balloons.

While I was looking through the dagashi store, my parents found a booth selling takoyaki, so they were both eating that when I turned to see what they were up to.

Judging from the way my mom was going at the little takoyakis, I think she was secretly trying to eat more than my dad.

It sure was a good holiday.