For the last day of the year we had a plan to go to Yokohama to meet one Japanese lady, who has been coming to Ukraine and Moldova for past 5 years to “promote” (if that’s the word to use) Japanese culture. In UAJC we have formed this Miyashiro juku, where we study various things about Japan and how we can popularize Japanese culture in Ukraine. In 2010 together with Miyashiro-san we went to Odessa and Dnipropetrovsk and in 2011 we visited Chernigiv and Ternopil, besides regular workshops in Kiev. Actually due to one of the workshops in Kiev last November I was introduced to the ambassador of Japan in Ukraine (Many people would think it is nothing to care about, but for some ua student to get business card from ambassador is actually pretty cool) This time it was my turn to come meet Miyashiro-san in Japan.


HOPE YOKOHAMA
Of course I would’ve enjoyed just going to Yokohama or meeting her anywhere without any particular reason, but as I was bringing some stuff for her from Ukraine, somehow it turned out to be a meeting that you can get out of XD In Yokohama we agreed to meet in China town for lunch. I’ve noticed that not all Japanese are tolerant when it comes to other Asians who live in Japan, however China town is really famous and popular! It is bright, noisy and colorful.

The buildings are brightly decorated, but what surprised me the most was this interesting parking… I wish I could see how they lift the car to the top floor XD

The restaurant that we went to was extremely fancy, but as Miyashiro-san was paying (this system when older/higher in rank is paying for you is nice for saving up, but not for personal dignity), I was told not to worry about anything. The food was served as a course of 12 dishes which started with there appetizers and ended up with the dessert. The change was coming from time to time so I was too lazy to take pictures of everything.

During the dinner we discussed my future plans and what to do about sado (Japanese tea ceremony) and kitsuke (kimono wearing) classes. As I was in Tm only for 3 days I had no idea about such classes there so I decided to get back to the topic once I have more clear view about it.

After the dinner we went for the walk to the seaside. The scenery was really amazing.

There was this open rink that I wanted to go to, but as we had not much time I had to give up this idea.

However I made Bee ride the famous Yh Ferris wheel with me. Of cause we had to stand in line for about 30 minutes, but the 15-minutes ride was worth it! Well, standing part was somewhat awkward as we were the only “girl couple” there. All this cute Japanese couples , both young and older, were having their dates at Yh seaside!

The view form the wheel was extraordinary)))

We wondered around some more

Wealso had some sweet cakes at Pronto

and went to Ueno for our NY celebration at Jazz bar.


It was planned to go out together with another ua/jp couple. The ua girl is 27 and the jp boy is 28. I’ve heard about their bf/gf relationship before my departure from Ukraine, but by the time I reached Japan, they became husband and wife XD They’ve known each other for a year or so and were actually planning to get married, it’s just that I didn’t know that they did before NY XD So during the NY I was the 5th wheel in the company)

The jazz bar had this really hommy feeling to it. The band was really nice and many regular customers would sing or play as well, which was really nice. When the band was taking the rest we would watch Kouhaku utaban. It is my first time watching Japanese “голубой огонек” live. We also saw the “Hope Yokohama” candle sign from before.

The clock stroke 12, we said “kampai” and enjoyed ourselves at that bar a bit longer as we trying to decide what to do next. The jp guy from the other couple started nagging that he wants to go to the shrine first and then to karaoke, even through Bee wanted to do the other way around. I and Bee’s bf were neutral and the ua girl took her husband’s side. And so we went to Asakusa for the first visit in the NY.

I was impressed how Japanese people are all nice and polite, they didn’t rush or push. They simply waited till their turn would come. The jp hubby said that that was truly NY feeling for him, as for me I’ve just felt that these people are very polite)
Another NY tradition is to get your fortune told through “omikuji”.

NB Actually there are several levels of fortune according to Japanese beliefs, starting with the worth one and improving till the greatest fortune (Great blessing (dai-kichi, 大吉 ), Middle blessing (chū-kichi, 中吉 ), Small blessing (shō-kichi, 小吉, Blessing (kichi, 吉 ), Half-blessing (han-kichi, 半吉 ), Future blessing (sue-kichi, 末吉 ), Future small blessing (sue-shō-kichi, 末小吉, Curse (kyō, 凶 ), Small curse (shō-kyō, 小凶 ), Half-curse (han-kyō, 半凶 ), Future curse (sue-kyō, 末凶 ), Great curse (dai-kyō, 大凶 ).

I was really excited about it! I was finally in Japan and I wanted this time to be very special for me and… You can not imagine what I’ve felt when I got the great curse! I was WTF all the way! No way… All the aspects were doomed, I was doomed! Work, travel, studies, love, health – everything was really bad! This might seem silly to most of you but I really wanted to have a nice fortune on the NY… I wasn’t the only unlucky one, all ua girls including me had this great curse, and the guys got great luck!.. bee’s bf was telling that his fortune is good for marrying this year and bee was also somewhat upset about hers bad luck so she told bf to go and get married by himself as it’s only his marriage fortune is good XD To raise the gloomy mood from omikuji failure we went to the karaoke. I was still gloomy so I didn’t sing that much, but others seemed to enjoy it. I guess I am still to shy to be singing in public. Or maybe I just need to get drunk XD Anyways we stayed till the first train and went back home to sleep… The new year had begun!