Had I been more on top of things, I would have begun to suspect that very first night. I was taken to a restaurant run by a sukebe oyaji, complete with sleezy hige (mustache). Sure, the food and atmosphere were great (though I was nicknamed "Ike-chan"), but a hige that pointy can't indicate anything good. Thankfully, after an offering of money, Hige-san was appeased and we managed to come out unharmed.
The next day, the 30th, is the traditional day for decorating your Genkan, entrance-way, and we decided to brave stores in order to acquire a New Year's wreath. On this day it began snowing, and Kitakami made it very clear what it thought of Gaijin wearing thin leather boots. I endured the cold to head to a warmer themed restaurant -- Okinawan food was on the plate. It was both oishii (delicious) and tanoshii (fun), and once we had our fill of food we headed on to Karaoke. (The owner of the Okinawan restaurant gave us presents of Hibiscus jam, which is a shade of maroon -- it could very easily be a blood&cream mixture?)
It was on the 31st that the real danger made itself evident. We had soba for dinner (as per tradition) and then headed to "American World" for festivities. The roads were slippery, it was dark, and we could see no other people around. If the celebration was so big, why were the Nihonjin not flocking to it? The flyer we had didn't give much explanation either; it only told us that something was going on, and the rest was in some indecipherable hieroglyphics. It would all right, we thought.
Getting there, we had to trek through more slush. Once we stepped into "American Wave" (the Statue of Liberty proving that it was, indeed, American), we discovered a strange little man whose scalp detached, a female cousin It, and a singing Cthulu. They spoke in tongues, and as our hearts began beating faster in our chests, the Nihonjin only laughed and clapped. In a desperate attempt to escape, we rushed outside at around midnight, only to have a swarm of Nihonjin follow. A rocket shot off to our left, luckily missing us and hitting a pile of wood instead. It burst into flames, leaving us effectively trapped. Nihonjin all around us, the fire at our side too hot to approach. It melted the snow and soaked our (or at least my) shoes. Just as they all began chanting (Juu, kyuu, hachi, nana, roku, go, yon, san, ni, ichi!), some fireworks went off. They seemed toe mesmerize the crowd (ourselves included), but we shook off the spell and rushed to the car. The Nihonjin attempted to give chase, but our getaway vehicle was of German make, and thus reliably started when Stefanie put the key in the ignition. We drove home as fasat as we dared -- it would do no good to escape a cult only to die in a freak snow/ice traffic accident.
Though we would have liked nothing more than to stay in the safety and (relative) warmth of the house, failing to give our offerings to the local gods might anger them, so we forced our way through the snow to a local Jinja. New Year's festivities were well under way, and we were all given sake and tsukemono to welcome the New Year. Senbei (thought thankfully not Shika-senbei) were also available. Just as we had settled around a bonfire, a group of old men called out to us and told us to follow. Had we been smarter, we might have declined, but it wasn't until they began muttering about Gaijin that I began to worry. One of the Ojii-san tried to calm our fears by stating we should be called Nakama (friends), not Gaijin (foreigners), but I wasn't fooled.
They led us to a smaller Jinja closer to Let's Sharing home, with a smaller bonfire. Once again Sake went around. Stefanie and I paced ourselves, anticipating a sudden need for flight, but it became unnecessary: the Ojii-san themselves had little head for alcohol, and soon couldn't walk straight anymore.
After all this cold, we felt a need to warm ourselves up. Around dusk, we once again headed out to the streets, though danger could lurk around any corner. In this case, the street itself was our enemy, covered in snow and slush. However, we managed to safely reach our destination: an Onsen. It was even mixed baths, but despite my contacts still being in, my eyes didn't actually burn off or anything. It was probably too cold; the walk from the shower area to the outside onsen, through the snow, barefoot, froze my toes -- and it was only sitting in the onsen for a good ten minutes that warmed me up. And even then, sitting with anything more than my head above the water would have been a quick way to chill myself. (I cannot stress how absolutely beautiful the scenery was: the sky completely dark, the onsen only dimly lit, and the snow falling all around us. What a nice interlude.)
It was a good thing we went onsening on that day, because we couldn't actually make it out on the 2nd due to reasons beyond our control, or caused by us, same difference. We had seen all the beautiful snow piled up on the hill next to Let's Sharing HQ, and decided that we needed to play in it. There were already two short, Japanese snowmen up there (I knew they were Japanese by their lack of a third snowball), and as Americans we felt we had to outdo them. Oh, how foolish we were. Matthew assumed the role of the Prince, and began rolling up a steadily growing snow-Katamari. At the point where parts of the grass were being rolled up as well, he needed some help from the cousins. Stef and I, though not really cousins, took on that role -- and then I ended up getting rolled up instead! I narrowly escaped, but I became wary of our massive Snowman. Once we had added his eyes, chills ran down my spine (not related to the actual chill of the weather or my soaked-through boots). He was giving us evil stares, and there was blood-lust in the air. Before we could yell, "Objection!", Matthew had been launched down the hill-side, myself and Stefanie soon to follow. Thankfully the snowman couldn't really look in any direction but straight ahead, so he did not see us escape back to HQ. We kept an eye out on him from the window, and mourned for the poor Japanese children who delighted at the sudden appearance of a Yuki-daruma.
The next day it was time for me to leave, and not a moment too soon: the snowman had multiplied, or at least added another ball to one of the Japanese snowmen, so now there were TWO big snow-abominations staring at us.
(Pictures later, once I figure out how to do this while wasting minimum bandwidth. Also, for a less fictionalized retelling of my adventures there, check out Let's Sharing: Snow Fun, New Year's Morning, New Year's Eve , New Year's Food, New Year's decorations.)
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