Here are the winning numbers for the 2013 New Years Postcard Lottery:
957503 – Prize: Computer, digital camera and printer – or – Digital TV
111316, 294651, or 346247 – Prize: Digital camera and digital picture frame – or – Humidifier – or – Bicycle
xx5635 – Prize: Regional food items
xxxx29, or xxxx70 – Prize: Postage stamps
Did you win anything?
Yesterday I went up the Tokyo Sky Tree.
634 meters tall … the tallest tower in the world!
First of all, the elevators move at 600 meters per minute! But they’re so smooth, I could hardly feel them move!
The sky was clear, blue and sunny … so I could clearly see Mt. Fuji, Tokyo Tower, Shinjuku, Tokyo Disneyland, the Tokyo Dome…all of Tokyo and beyond!
The shadow of Tokyo Sky Tree
Today is a holiday in Japan.
It’s 「成人の日」(“Coming of Age Day” or “Adults Day”).
In Japan, twenty years old is the legal age of adulthood.
The drinking and voting age is 20 in Japan.
On the second Monday of January (today), twenty-year-olds in Japan dress in kimono and attend a special ceremony.
My oldest daughter will do it next year!
I can’t believe how fast they grow up!
Anyway, every winter in Tokyo it usually snows once or twice.
It’s snowing today!
The weather had been so nice everyday recently and then, on the day that so many people dressed up for a special day, the weather went downhill.
I feel sorry for them!
I hope the weather is nice on this day next year and the following two years … for my daughters’ ceremonies!
Do you ever look at the “Huffington Post” website? I have their app on my smartphone. I like animals a lot … so I liked this slideshow of cats sleeping in funny positions that I found on their site: Click here to see it.
Then there’s “Maru”, the cute cat here in Japan that has become a bit of a YouTube celebrity:
In Japan, cute mascot characters are very popular to help promote many stores, restaurants and merchandise.
Even the Tokyo police, fire department and Japanese military have mascots.
Also, cities and prefectures in Japan have cute or funny mascot characters that are related to some local food or animal.
They are used to help promote tourism to the area.
These characters are normally cute … or at least try to be.
So, the new mascot for the northernmost Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido was on the news recently because not only is the character not cute… but it’s actually on there scary side!
Hokkaido is famous for the wild bears (熊 (kuma) in Japanese) and the cantaloupe (メロン (melon) in Japanese)… so the character is 「メロン熊」(“Melon-kuma“).
It’s a bear with a Japanese cantaloupe melon for a head … and has angry eyes and huge teeth!
It’s also fond of trying to bite people!
Quite different from the usual mascots in Japan!
Here’s a video of the melon-kuma trying to bite people and promote tourism to Hokkaido:
In Tokyo, there is a subway station named 「辰巳駅」(“Tatsumi Station”).
The Japanese kanji characters that spell “Tatsumi” are the characters for “dragon” and “snake”.
So, for that reason, every twelve years … including this year … that station is a kind of unofficial New Years station.
This is because 2012 was 「辰年」(“the Year of the Dragon “) and this year (2013) is 「巳年」(“the Year of the Snake “).
So, for this New Years, Tatsumi Station changed the signs in the station to read:
辰 → 巳
(Dragon → Snake)
It’s great!
It’s now 2013 January 1st in Japan.
明けましておめでとう！(Happy New Year!) ♪
On the Japanese calender, 2013 is 平和25年 (Heisei 25) … the “Year of the Snake” (巳年).
New Years is the biggest holiday in Japan.
It would take a lot to explain Japanese New Year in detail … New Years postcards, TV specials, relatives coming together for a special meal, temple visits, lucky charms and New Years decorations, and many other things.
I’ll just briefly introduce you to Daruma.
Daruma is a round doll that people buy at New Years in Japan.
He has a funny face … and no eyes!
If you get a Daruma, you’re supposed to make a wish for the new year and paint one of his eyes in.
If the wish comes true, you paint in the other eye.
Regardless of whether the wish comes true or not, at the end of the year, you’re supposed to bring the Daruma (and any other New Years decorations you have) to a temple to be burned … and then get a new one for the next year.
It’s bad luck to keep a Daruma for over one year.
Tokyo Five 
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