a CONVIVIAL new years eve

So its been a long and crazy year, and I realized that my sporadic blogs jumping from topic to topic with a few long winded life recaps in between probably isn't very interesting... and also doesn't really give me the writing outlet that I'd like to have, nor allows my family and friends around the globe to get a very good feel of normal life for me. So my 2012 "digital age" resolution is to do a bit less on Facebook, and a bit more on my blog. I'd been trying to think about a weekly topic or idea to focus my attention on and I've come up a Word of the Week. My hopes is that with each Word of the Week post, I can grow my vocabulary a bit (something I feel I lack and are sometimes self conscious of), and then also explain the happenings of the week that prompted that word to have been chosen. Unlike the Word of the Week/Day desktop calendars that urge you to USE the word throughout that week/day, this will be a retroactive approach. Since it is only January 2nd, I do not have a full week to think back upon but I will try a mini-post and focus solely on my New Years Eve celebration, therefor being called my Word of the Night instead :-)

W.o.t.N.

con·viv·ial  adj \kən-ˈviv-yəl, -ˈvi-vē-əl\

Definition of CONVIVIAL

: relating to, occupied with, or fond of feasting, drinking, and good company

convivial host> convivial gathering>

My New Years Eve was indeed convivial, so much so that I think the definition should be changed to as follows

Convival :relating to, occupied with, or fond of having a kick-ass time in Tokyo on New Years Eve with a bunch of friends while partaking in many memorable activities around the city that could never be replicated in its entirety even if you died trying.

 

I was happily convinced by my husband that a NYE (as New Years Eve will now be called throughout the rest of this post) in downtown Tokyo would be worth adjusting our sleep schedule in order to stay out all night and eating microwavable ramen until our next paycheck, since as our life seems to be as a military family, we never know where we may be or what we will be doing next year. My wonderful “live in the now” husband is good for me in that way … anyways, we decided to get a group of friends together and make a night of it! 

We had 13 people head down to Tokyo Station where I managed to make reservations for us all to eat at a Mexican restaurant in Marunouchi. It was called Mucho! and was a festive place, perfect for a NYE dinner- complete with bright lights, festive drinks, a band with a trilingual singer (Japanese, English, and Spanish!), and Arabian belly dancing… yup. Leave it to Japan to get it just about right then ad their own random international flair to it. Needless to say, dinner was fantastic and everybody left full and much less sober than when we arrived. 

Us at Zojoji Temple

From there it was less than a 10 minute cab ride (where we “dragged raced” in our own cabbie version of Tokyo Drift our friend’s cab… we lost… boohoo) to Zojoji Temple and Tokyo Tower. This is the “Times Square” of Japanese NYE events. In fact, the Japanese Tradition for the new year is to visit a temple at midnight to give prayers for the new year and to watch the first sunrise. We at least got the temple part right as we joined the huge crowd holding balloons with their wishes for the new year tied to the string. Tokyo Tower was lit up in the background and TV cameras were all around, mainly focused on the announcers and the giant bell that will be rang at midnight. We remember watching it last year from a friend’s house party so it was really fun to be there in person! Japan doesn’t have open container laws outside so people there were enjoying their drinks and mingling until the countdown.

View of Tokyo Tower from below!

After the cheers, the NYE kisses, the releasing of the balloons, and drunken Americans singing their terrible rendition of Aude Lang Syne…  we decided to head past Tokyo tower into the party district of Roppongi.   

Our group at the Temple! Complete with Champagne :-)

Our group ended up splitting as one half decided to wait in line at a club and our half chose to find our favorite shot bar. Sadly, it was closed for the holiday (another boohoo) so we ended up at a different club. After some initial anxiety and annoyance at the overly crowded, loud, dark and smokey venue, we made it to the top floor where we got to stand in the open air and enjoy a much less crowded bar. The club experience is not one that I have often, nor do I particularly crave, but it was actually a really fun time.  We also ran into a few friends there which in a city of millions of people is always a random experience. It was after 4am when we left the club, but we had about an hour until our train was running back to our suburb, so what else can you do but enjoy the 24hr McDonalds.  Finally we took the first train of the morning back to our city, but sadly the rapid trains don’t run that early and it took forever. Despite thinking I lost my husband in Shinjuku station without his cell phone, we all boarded a train and headed home. Luckily it was pretty empty and we got to have a seat the whole time. It was from the train where I watched the first sunrise of 2012. 

We finally arrived home at 7:30am, a full 12 hours from when we departed… our wallets were lighter, as were our heads, but we had smiles on our faces and were happy. And THAT, dear friends, is why my NYE was CONVIVIAL!

Happy 2012 Everybody!