Celebrating New Year's and GuGong Palace

しんねん　あけましておめでとうございます。ことしもどうぞよろしくおねがいします。

新年快乐！

Happy New Year! Best wishes for the coming year!

We spent Christmas and New Years in Nagoya, Japan, where I am from. On Christmas, in Japan, we don’t celebrate with family, it’s more of a couple’s date night. Instead, for Japanese people, New Year is the biggest holiday. Families get together and eat “Osechi”.

Here is a photo of Osechi that we ate this year. Each food has a meaning of a wish. For example, shrimp look like an old man whose back is curled, and has a cane. Therefore, it represents,” wishing a long life”. Kazunoko, (herring roe) represents, “wishing having many children”. Kuromame (black beans): “mame”, in old Japanese, means someone who works hard and can live a strong life--therefore eating kuromame means, “wishing good health”.

There is a tradition for kids to receive money instead of gifts from adults in the New Year, a custom called "Otoshidama". Jay and Kosei got Otoshidama from their grandma, aunts, and uncles. They saved the money for the next time they will go back to Japan.

We had a great time in Japan. It even snowed on Christmas. Here is a photo of a residencial neighborhood in Nagoya .

Before we went to Japan, our flight was cancelled in Beijing. So, we went sightseeing in Tiananmen and Gugong.

You might have seen this sight already since it’s a very famous/important place in China. You can see a photo of Mao Tse Tung.  This is the place where he declared The People’s Republic of China on October 1st, 1949. Tiananmen(Gate of Heavenly Peace) is located at the North of Tiananmen Square which is a large city square in the center of Beijing, separating it from Gugong, the Forbidden City.

This is inside GuGong. The emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasty lived this palace. It's a World Heritage Site. Building started in 1406 by the Yongle emperor and it took 15 years to complete. It served as the palace for the next 24 emperors and 500 years.

The outer wall of GuGong is 10m high and 720,000 m2, there are about 9000 rooms!

It was SO cold in Beijing! It was around -10 Celsius. It didn’t snow but the road was icy for us to walk on!