Why moths and I do not get along, and Japanese shougatsu

Hello everyone! I know it's been two weeks since my last update, which is not all that bad from last time. Things have been really, really busy, so I'm actually going to split this post into two and post the second one next week.

Alright, so first things first: I actually visited my first onsen two days before I moved to my new home and forgot to post about it. I think it's actually a bigger deal than most people would think, just because I was fretting about it for so long. The reason? Well, if you haven't heard of Japanese onsen, I will now tell you: everyone is butt naked. Me and my delicate Western modesty was very, very nervous to experience this.

The thing is that it's really hard to be self-conscious when everyone else in the room is naked too. It seems like everyone's got this sort of 'I don't see you you don't see me' mentality; somehow the Japanese have perfected talking to people without looking away from the face. This mentality was also helped when I removed my glasses, because I am almost blind without them, so I couldn't see what I was looking at anyway. I'm...sure I must've freaked out some of the Japanese, though, because I have a tendency to accidentally stare when I'm trying to figure out who or what I'm looking at.

Anyway, the actual onsen was really, really nice. The water is kept at a steady 42 degrees Celsius, and the water though the water isn't all that deep, it means you can stretch out on the ground. There's an indoor pool and an outdoor pool, and the outdoor pool is awesome, especially in the summer. Usually there's a pretty nice view nearby, and the air is nice and cool, so you're not baking on all sides at once. Very relaxing.

Obviously I did not take any pictures.

Anyway, next: Japanese New Years, or as I said in the title, Japanese Shougatsu with my new host family.

On December 31st, or 'omisoka', I helped my mom make some of the 'osechi ryori', or the food that we all eat on New Years. I'm not entirely sure what kind of food I worked with, only that one of them was carrot. The other one was a Japanese renkon, sort of a radish like thing, and a konyaku, which when you say it properly sounds like 'cognac'. The konyaku and carrot were pretty easy, but I completely messed up the renkon. Kudos to the host mom, who came up and cleaned up the mess I made.

We did not stay up till twelve, or at least I didn't; I have become attached to my sleep as of late, and went to bed at ten. The next morning I woke up, and for brunch we got to have the osechi ryori!

Here's a picture of the table with the shrine in the background. 

There's the actual food. 

Close-up of the food, by Tadahimi

(Tadahimi is my host brother, by the way.)

The food was awesome, as I'm sure you're all able to see from the picture. The fish we ate is sea bream, but the way, which I've never had but was pretty awesome. 

Here's a pic of the family on Shougatsu!

Left to right: Dad, me, Mom, Tadahimi, Kouji. Not the most flattering picture, thanks Kouji.

Anyway, since Kouji only came for Shougatsu, he actually left a few days after this. But not before we went to Kobe! 

China town in Kobe!

As you can see, my mom is much more fashionable than I.

We went shopping in Kobe, and had lots of food. Not a lot of sightseeing, but the food was great and the shopping was not too bad. 

873And finally, I have a story to tell all of you, which should be pretty funny.

So I was in brass band on a Thursday, the Thursday before school started. It was the end of the day, so we were all cleaning up, and I was basically just hanging around waiting for people to tell me to do something. So I'm standing there, and suddenly I notice this moth flying around above my head, about the size of my fist. I'm talking ENORMOUS. 

Me being me, I just give it a wary look and forget about it. 

A minute later, I am aware of something large and black flying at my face. After the moment, I acknowledge it was the moth. In the moment it looked like the spawn of all things dark and unholy was flying at me. I did what any sane martial artist would do and did a controlled fall backwards, right to the floor. 

I think there was one girl who acted concerned about me. The others were just laughing. 

But this was not the end of the moth. Oh no. 

Ten minutes later, I'm standing with the saxophones, checking my phone to see what time it is. And all the sudden something starts MOVING INSIDE MY COAT. 

I immediately yanked off my coat. Japanese has fled me. I have begun growling very loudly in English, and all are confused. 

Then my SHIRT STARTS MOVING. 

INSIDE MY SHIRT. 

I was about two seconds from tearing off my shirt before the moth finally flew out. But somehow, that moth stayed in there for ten minutes before I finally noticed it. I also accidentally taught the Japanese some new swear words, which they gleefully repeated for minutes afterwards, on a completely separate note. 

Anyway, the next post will be in a week, and it'll be about the trip to Tokyo I took! Look forward to it, and don't let any moths fly into your shirt!

(One thing I will mention. It is cold right now. Not as cold as Sycamore, but you know what? I ride to school everyday in a skirt. On a bike. Why don't the Japanese believe in pants?)