Happy 2007

~Everyone, Oshogatsu Omedetou (Happy New Year!). The first day of January is the most important day in the Japanese calendar, and is also a holiday. Unlike some of the more raucous holidays, New Year's Day is a day of rest and relaxation. Everything is supposed to be clean and tidy (presumably done before the holiday), while on the day itself, people are supposed to relax and do no work.

As a result, Nagaoka is completely dead, with every nonessential business closed down, with the notable exception of the ubiquitous convenience stores. Although, one could make a strong argument for them being essential...

Anyway, it's a fine spring day here, or at least that's what it feels like. The weak snowfall has melted off already, and the city didn't even have to deploy it's now-legendary road sprinklers. However, the surrounding mountains are now quite lovely, so I took some pictures to share:

^ As I've mentioned before, Nagaoka is not a beautiful city, but it is in a beautiful location. The word Nagaoka (長岡) means "long hill", an appropriate designation for the long, low mountain chains that go around the city on two sides.

^ Another colorful sunset over the hills. The small tower on the right has something to do with controlling the fireworks during the summer festival, but at present it's locked up and inaccessible.

^ Here is a panoramic image of the mountains to the east of Nagaoka. Please click on the image to make it larger. The darkening on the right side is not an optical error, but rather the shadow of the large cloud bank from the previous picture.

Again, I hope everyone had/is having a relaxing and enjoyable New Year's Day. I imagine that many of you partook of a bit too much bubbly last night and are sleeping it off as you write this. But remember: in Japan, it's customary to watch the sun rise on the first day of the year*. ~Oyasumi!

(*Disclaimer: I slept until 11:30 am this morning. And a good morning it was.)