Sunrise from our apartment

Saturday, January 15, 2011

New Year's Eve with the Young Single Adults



One of the main reasons we stayed in Yokosuka at the home of John and Lora Lund over the Holday's was to support the Young Single Adult's on that base while they were gone. "The Fleet is in" which means the 6,000+ people assigned to the George Washington and other support ships as well as the people assigned to Atsugi Naval Air Support are back with their families or at least back on land. The Lunds host Family Home Evening for the YSA's assigned to Yokosuka. We planned a New Year's Eve party for the YSA's from Yokota as well as Yokosuka. We had 17 attend which was a very nice turnout. We had pizza at the Lunds and then took a 45 minute train ride into Yokohama and walked around China Town for awhile. The Yokota group stayed there to do some shopping before returning to the Air Force Base and the rest of us retured to Yokosuka and watched fireworks from a barge in the harbor by the base. The people in Japan celebrate the New Year for five days starting on December 30th. Most office and government businesses will close down for those five days. They celebrate New Years Day at sunrise rather than at midnight. They like to congregate on the highest hill or mountain or along the beach and silently watch the sun rise. Many of them go to a nearby Bhuddist or Shinto shrine and toss in a coin or put up a prayer board for good luck in the coming year. But mostly the five days are spent at parties with a lot of alcohol flowing.

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