Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's already the end of 2011 and I haven't even broken 20 posts here. Definitely going to fix that in 2012.

I wanted to wish all my blog friends a fantastic New Year. Again I'm going to aim for being more organized and productive this year. That way I can post here and stop by and see everyone at least once a week.

We spent New Year's Eve at the local temple.

Voila'.

I still love that they build a fire in a drum can to keep us all warm.




Here's J ringing out the old year.

And when we're done with our turn ringing, the head monk and his wife give us hot drinks. Amazake for me and hot sake for M.

Home for a few hours sleep and then off to the beach for the sunrise. The weatherman said it was going to be cloudy, but I got up at 5:00, saw stars and woke everyone else. They weren't the happiest campers but, hey, we did get to see the sunrise.

Here's pre-sunrise.

While we're waiting lots of wild dancing and music going on (to the right). On the left are the guys with the giant flags. Love them. Those things have got to be heavy.

And then the sun comes up and someone on a microphone wishes us all a Happy New Year and we 'banzai' three times.

After we leave the beach we drive to the docks and I take pictures of the boats all decked out in New Year's decorations.

That's Mount Fuji there in the back to the left.

Then home to eat New Year's breakfast and sleep for a few hours.

I'll leave you all with a funny photo I just took. Animals are pretty exhausted being kept up all night with us going in and out. The cat was sleeping soundly when Cha suddenly got up and sat down, not realizing his tail was on her neck. (Note: She *hates* when the dog touches her.) So she had this disgusted look on her face but was too sleepy to move. I shot this not realizing she was actually laser-beaming him with her eyes.

Take care everyone, let's all have a great Year of the Dragon.