New Year In Sagamihara

Ohayo (good morning)
Konnichiwa (good day, used after 12 noon till 3 p.m)

Happy New Year 2009 all!

My New Year was quiet and uneventful. Temperatures took a dip, and went down to -2C/29F.
This is how it went.

I met a couple while doing groceries. The guy is from the Bahamas, and his girlfriend is Japanese. I was having difficulties decephering and selecteing some grocery items. They helped me out.

Later on, I invited them to my apartment and cooked the spinach I had bought with shrimps, mushrooms, and sliced eggplants. We ate it with boiled sweet potatoes. They said it was delicious.

In return, they invited me out for dinner on New Year's Day. That was yesterday. We went to an "Izakaya", a drinking place that also serves light snacks and meals. I was introduced to horse meat. It is served raw! But, I made them grilled it for me.
Honestly, it was quite tasty. I wouldn't mind eating it again.

Today is Friday. I start teaching formally on Thursday, January 8 . I have been indoors since morning. It is quite cold outside.
So far, from what I have seen, Japan is very interesting and quite beautiful. The people are very nice, though reserved, and very welcoming. They are funny but in a very subtle way.

I was told (by some of my colleagues) that they like to drink and get drunk so as to "loosen" up. They believed that if you open up and talk in a loud voice while sober, then something is wrong with you. So, they use the pretense of alcohol to get intoxicated and lose all inhibition.
I have been having quite a few invitations to go out for a drink.