New Year in Japan (Lin Te Kuan)

      This year I went to 增上寺 to count down to the new year and after then I went to 台場 to see the first sun rise in 2011. These two events were all very new to me. I found a lot of cool things about Japan in them!
      On the last day of 2010, my friends and I went to 增上寺 to count down to the new year and we wanted to see the beautiful Tokyo tower. We arrived at 9:30 at night. People were starting to gather in 增上寺. Around 10 pm, some people ran out and sang a song. Though I didn’t know the name of the song, but I liked it. After they finished singing, a girl ran out carrying a torch. Then they light up some spots. It’s quite interesting to see that because I have never seen anything like that before. What was even more fascinating was that增上寺 distributed eco-friendly balloons. But the number of the balloons is limited so I didn’t get the balloon. The purpose of the balloons was to make everyone let go of the balloon when the moment that the New Year comes. So when 2010 only had 10 seconds left, all of us in增上寺 shutting out loud to count down the time and then let go of the balloons. In a moment, all the balloons flew into the sky and the view was very beautiful and they also rang the huge bell in the增上寺. But I think the greatest of all is Tokyo Tower! It is always very gorgeous at night. When the first time I saw Tokyo tower, I couldn’t believe it can be so attractive. The beautiful orange light with night sky, the whole scenery was stunning. Everyone around me couldn’t stop looking at Tokyo tower just liked me. And when there were only few minutes in 2010, the light of Tokyo tower gone out, only a few purple lights sparkled. As the time of 2010 became less and less, those purple lights sparkled faster and faster. When 2011 came, the whole Tokyo tower was like being pasted with a lot of diamonds, sparking at night. Tokyo tower was the best part for my countdown event.
      After then, my friends and I went to 台場 to see the first sun rise in 2011. The weather was really cold, so we stayed in McDonald to wait. At first we thought there were not many people wanted to see sun rise as we do, but then as the time of sun rise became close and closer, people in McDonald became more and more. We asked the girls sat besides us what were they want to do, they told us they are going to see the sun rise! And when we get out of McDonald, there were a large crowd all going in the same direction. As we followed, we found that a lot of people were all going to see the sun rise. When the sun came out, Japanese around us were all very exciting!
    I thought these two events were very special because in Taiwan, we have concerts and fireworks so we won’t be so calm to count down to the New Year and won’t be so happy to see the sun rise! It seems that Japanese are really different from us, and that’s why I found it is cool!