Happy New Year!

Me just after the first sunrise of the year

Happy New Year everyone!

…Okay, okay, so it’s a week late. This is okay though, it’s the thought that counts, right?

Things have been really busy lately. As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve had friends over for most of the holidays, and also had to celebrate Christmas and my 25th birthday in a way that felt appropriate to me. As mentioned, Christmas is a time to spend with k-pop artists and idols when I’m overseas, and I spent three days doing that. So success there.

However, with my birthday being on New Years Eve, things always take a strange turn. People make plans, cancel plans, change plans… Despite the fact I tell myself I’m going to try and be really fluid with my plans each year, I always seem to get my heart set on one thing too much and then it changes. This year, we ended up bowling with some friends, consuming far too much cake, and sitting in a 24 hour Italian style cafe drinking and watching the countdown specials on the TV. The important part for the night for me was what came the morning after.

Ever since I started to be interested in Japanese culture, I was always fond of the idea that getting up to watch the first sunrise, or hatsuhinode / 初日の出. It’s a very old tradition, with roots in the idea that the Sun God is the main god of the thousands worshipped across Japan in shrines and temples. It was considered important to get up to see and pray to the first sunrise of the year. Even now, it’s an idea that stands and seems to work with people from any culture or religion, since the sunrise is very beautiful, and the fact you can see such a beautiful thing as the first thing of that year is special.

When I lived in Japan, I tried to go and see the first sunrise, and while I did get to see it with my friends, it wasn’t in the most ideal circumstance. The year after, living in Brockville, we had been getting lots of snow for days, and despite all my determination, I ended up spinning out in my car on the way to the waterfront and was stuck in a ditch. So this year, I was DETERMINED to see an ideal sunrise. I picked out the location before, and made sure it wasn’t impossible to go to. I opted for the bridge going over the river by my house – no more than a 10 minute walk from my place, a rather clear view of the sun rising (No ridiculous buildings or epic mountains in the way) and checked the weather before. Cold, but no snow, rain, or alien attacks to stop me.

We woke WAY too early (all my friends crashed on my floor) and begrudgingly got ready to head out. It was already light out, but no sign of the sun. It was also fiercely cold, so we were hoping the sun would do a rush job and just come out.

Naturally, the opposite would happen.

A large cluster of clouds decided that the mountains, and the exact spot where the sun would rise, would be a fantastic place to set up home for the morning. While the result meant the sunrise would take ages to come up, and we would freeze in the process, the view was still fantastic.