The year of the Mouse!

So it is the Year of the Mouse here in Japan, and this being our second New Year's here, we decided to brave the crowds and head up to Yokohama for some shopping. The New Year holiday is the busiest time of year for the Japanese. They spend many days at the end of December cleaning there houses to have a clean start for the new year. As an American, I find this odd since it is also the coldest time of the year and our neighbor was out cleaning his screens one day. Though the sun was out I would rather wait until March. While shopping, we found a new thing that we hadn't seen in Japan before, shopping bags full of stuff all for one price. This is the big shopping sale that happens after the new year in Japan, and we found anything from kids' Hello Kitty clothes to jewelry to who knows how many other things. It was a fun day and we enjoyed being out with all the other people and enjoying the nice weather.