EY Y01 L33 Japanese New Year

  1. Japanese families do many things to celebrate the coming of the new year. Name one. Tell me about it.
  2. Who will you be spending your next New Years Holiday with?
  3. Are you looking forward to the New Year's holiday? Why?
  4. What do you remember most vividly and fondly from New Years (Oshougatsu) when you were a child?
  5. How is the New Years holiday different now compared to how it used to be when you were a child?
  6. What do you find the most irksome or annoying thing you have to do over the New Years holiday?

Question 1

I'm sure that there will be many similar answers to this question, as Japan is so traditional. Something that my family and I do for New Years is eat kani nabe. My father-in-law orders the most delicious crabs from the Northern Pacific Ocean. We usually drink sake from the head of the crab as a tradition.

Question 2

My family of course. I would like to go back to Boston, but it is very expensive. I can't afford to fly my entire family back to the U.S. I actually prefer the Japanese New Year holiday to the U.S. One of the things that I really miss is Phish concerts on New Year's Eve at Madison Square Garden in NYC.

Question 3

I am very much. It will be nice to spend time with my children. My wife has to work through the holiday, so we won't be able to travel much.

Question 4

I remember that my father was always a drummer somewhere. My brothers and sisters were much older than me and they always went out with their friends. I was home with my mum. We would order take-out Chinese food and watch the ball drop at Times Square, NYC.

Question 5

Easy. I was in America and now I'm in Japan. It is so different.

Question 6

I actually have a hard time answering this question. Maybe, waiting in lines at the shrine, but this year was pretty fast. The queue was only fifteen minutes and Miwa got Daikichi Omikuji. ! We went to Namba Yasaka Shrine. I have no idea why, but after the visit, we went to play pinball at the Big Cat in Amerika Mura.

Tough Vocabulary

- English - - Japanese -
similar 似た
prefer 好む
concert コンサート
pinball ピンボール