New Year Preparations

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New Year is looming, its in the air.  The biggest holiday in Japan is one day away!  It seems like the country is starting to grind to a halt and everyone has gone back to their ancestral hometowns; I went to Minami Senju last night and the train was practically empty.  On the other, people are rushing around getting last minute preparations for the New Year.  I've been told everything stops for 2-3 days (banks, services, etc) but shops seem to be open for regular business on the 1st.  I went out today to run some errands and it was crazy.  The grocery store was packed.  But, it could also be because its a Sunday afternoon and people are home from work and therefore out shopping. 

I inherited a few things from Justin last night because he's been booted out of his Nova apartment in Minami Senju.  He's pretty choked up, since its a pretty nice location.  It's on the north-east edge of Tokyo; almost in the 'burbs, but still in the city.  He's moving temporarily to Warabi in Saitama until he can find a place in the city.  I scored a new futon (since mine is growing (more) mold) and a DVD player.  I had to switch the region on my laptop to play Japanese DVDs so I was planning to get an external player so I can switch my computer back.  It's a pain because you can only change the region 4 times.  After the last time, it's stuck that way.  I'm quite pleased that I managed to score this little player for free.  I went to Bic Camera to get cables for the player on my giant errand trip, and after staring at rack upon rack of cables for thirty minutes, picked one and it turns out the end is wrong.  GAH!  So I have to go out again tomorrow and exchange it.  What a pain.  Go figure. 

I'm almost done my new year cleaning as well.  I'm half-done my laundry, and only have the bathroom left to clean.  I had planned to get up early (didn't happen) to air out my futons and get my laundry done and hung up since it was supposed to be sunny.  I made a move at noon, and at 12:30 a storm rolled in and started hailing!  Since I had so much laundry to do, I'd have had to make two trips anyway, so I did the bulky, heavy stuff today so it could have time to dry.  Ironically, by the time I was done at the laundromat the storm passed and the sun was out again.  I also got a お正月飾り oshougatsu kazari (New Year decoration) for my door.  It's made of pine branches and supposed to welcome good luck to your house for the new year.  It's hung until January 7th, but then I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with it.