Well, a Happy New Year to all. I know it's a little late, but I was quite busy over the holidays and I just recently finished reinstalling my operating system. Anyway, I had a very nice Christmas this year. Some friends from up north (Suzu to be exact) came down and stayed at mine for a couple of days.

We had a nice little party with a small plastic Christmas tree, presents and a yummy Christmas dinner.

Little Grumpy Bear came too. Actually he's just grumpy because we forgot to buy him a present.

Although we're having a pretty warm winter compared to the previous ones we had some snow between Christmas and New Year. Unfortunately it melted within a couple of days. Below is a picture of my car covered in snow.

After my friends from Suzu left to celebrate the New Year in Tokyo I drove up into the mountains to have a pre New Year party in a ski hut with some Japanese friends.

It started snowing upon our arrival and everything was white a couple of hours later.

The following morning it took us a while to free our cars from under the snow. We actually had to pull one of the cars out of the snow with a rope.

On my way back to Kanazawa I drove past this little fellow standing at the roadside. He was advertising a dinosaur museum in the area.

The New Year in Japan is pretty much celebrated like we celebrate Christmas in Europe and the USA. Basically it's a family event where everyone prepares themselves for the New Year by eating special New Year's foods that are supposed to cleanse the body. 

Before midnight everyone takes a bath to enter the New Year fresh and clean. After midnight everyone goes to a temple to pray for good fortune and health for the coming year.
So because it's a family event and most people spend New Years eve with their families there aren't any big parties or fireworks. So with nothing planned and most people I know out of the country there wasn't much else for me to do but stay at home.
On the 1st my co-worker picked me up and I celebrated the New Year with her and her family by eating more ritual foods. It was a very pleasant experience.

Before returning to work on the 7th I went on a little road trip down to Fukui prefecture, which is about a 3-4 hour drive from my place. The coast has a row of sea cliffs and oddly shaped rocks formed by the rough waves of the Sea of Japan. Most of these places didn't really have a name, or I wasn't able to decipher it so I'll just let you enjoy the pictures.

On my way back home I stopped off at Eiheiji Temple. It's one of the biggest active Buddhist Training temples in Japan. Unfortunately most of it was boarded shut to protect it from the snow and cold. I was nonetheless able to get a couple of good shots.