I woke up still feeling tired, uhhh. I think this overnight jaunt will take several days to recover from. Y’s mom had prepared a grand spread for breakfast with some of the leftover food from yesterday. Y and I went out so she could show me the shrines around her home and so that I could do hatsumode - the first shrine visit of the new year. At one of the larger temples, there were so many stands selling food and trinkets. I bought two charms, one with a monkey for the new year and one with a wooden horse, the year I was born in. Many people were out and about. A couple of the vendors commented on my height and figure, ha. I think I may have been the only foreigner around too. We also got omikuji - fortunes - based on our birthdays.

We walked around her neighborhood, and saw part of the Waseda University campus. Such gorgeous weather, warm too! The winters here are sunny. We went to a smaller fox shrine on the way back. One of the shrine maidens told me Happy New Year in English! It’s always cute to watch people gather their courage to speak with me. There was a lovely, small park next door.

For lunch, K’s mom’s side of the family came over, four of them including her cousin, an adorable little girl. Absolutely amazing food again. We had ozoni - traditional new year’s soup. I overate as per usual. My stomach was feeling much better today so I wanted to try everything! Shortly after we had dessert and tea. I got to try baumkuchen for the first time! It’s really popular in Japan although I’ve almost never seen it in Germany.

After the relatives left, we headed out to complete a stamp rally with the Seven Gods of Fortunes. We got a poster board to place our stamps on and then had to use a map to find all the shrines and temples. We split into two teams, Y’s parents, and Y, her brother, and I. I took over navigating and thoroughly impressed them. Only had difficulty finding one because it was outside the cemetery we were walking through, not inside like we thought. Her parents won, but they knew where all the stamps were since they’d done it last year!

Nabe - hot pot - was for dinner with some kind of seafood I’ve never had before. Abalone, maybe. I could only eat a tiny bit because I was too full! We watched tv as well, a comedy show where I comedian plays sports with pros. It was a tennis match with Nishikori Kei and two other pro players. They threw in giant rackets and had 6 players versus Nishikori and his coach. Very funny. When bathtime rolled around, they offered me the first bath (just like everything I’ve read and seen!), but I declined since I was going home tomorrow. K’s parents also worked on New Year’s cards. She told me they get about 300 cards!