I was invited by my Japanese sensei to a 新年会 (New Years Party) today. It was held at a cultural center about 20 minutes from my house. At first I was kind of worry what sort of party it was going to be, but it turned out to be a lot of fun!

There were a lot of families with small children inside. The kids were so cute! I mostly stayed close by my sensei and a couple of classmates. There were activities for kids stationed throughout the building, so we participated in a few. The best one was the かるた (playing card) game. We already choose the easiest version, which was the Anpanman set. I thought I was doing really well until a couple of kids joined in our game. Nothing like having a bunch of kids beating you to seriously wound your ego!

There were other things like 紙相撲 (paper sumo) and 福笑い (similar to pin the tail on the donkey). Also things like tea ceremony demonstration, calligraphy workshop and kimono dressing. There was also a お餅つき (rice cake pounding) demonstration.

We toured for about an hour before heading off to the kitchen to find food. They had カレライス (curry rice) and お雑煮 (ozoni), which is a New Years dish prepared with rice cake and soup. Everything was really yummy! My only complaint was that the portions were so small!

Anyway, I really did have a lot of fun today. However I realized when I left that I didn’t even speak a word of Japanese the entire time! Hehehe, I will try harder next time!

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BTW, in the origami corner, they were teaching us to fold tigers. Here is my version. How does mine compare? =P