December 31st continued…
The first thing we have to mention is that it was 28 years ago tonight that I met Aubrey, certainly a monumental anniversary. I also have to mention that we are not with Harriet and Shelly this year, and are thinking of them. They are the ones responsible for us meeting in the first place that fated night on New Year’s Eve 1997. We try to be together New Year’s whenever we are both in town, and this year, neither of us are in town.
We were excited to be in Tokyo for New Year’s Eve. I tasked the kids with figuring out where they wanted to be. After significant internet research we discovered that all of the large public New Year’s gatherings and countdown were cancelled. The government was encouraging people to stay home with their families. This may have been partly due to the cancellation of large gathering since COVID, and partly due to the problems such events cause from public drinking and rowdy crowds that can get out of control. There was even a stampede that happened in Korea in 2022 during Halloween where 159 people died and 196 others were wounded.
We were going to go back to Asakusa where there were going to be food stalls open and people visiting the Senso-Ji temple to give their New Years offerings, but Erez read on Reddit that the lines for food were over 2 hours long and the whole area was jam packed. We opted to check a restaurant close to home that was still open and looked promising. However, when we got there it was only open for reservations. After wandering the streets a little bit longer, we gave up and decided to go to several convenience stores and stock up on food and hang out at the house.
In the end, sitting around, chatting and eating and just hanging out with my family was the best option I could have asked for. We stayed up until 2am, and Noam and Teva made a TikTok dance video (hope the audio isn’t muted due to copyright). This evening I have been reflecting and counting my blessings, which are too numerous to list. I would also like to offer thanks to whomever has decided to follow us on the amazing journey.
Happy New Year Everyone! May 2025 be infinitely better than the dumpster fire of 2024.
