Welcoming in the New Year

(This is a bit late coming, so I appologize for that.)

I spent my New Years holidays at the Yoshimatsu household in Yokohama. Yuki's family welcomed me into their home to celebrate the New Year with them.

Here is a picture of Yuki's family on New Years morning as they pray to their ancestors by reciting Buddhist chants to the family shrine in their sitting room. This important event did not take place without some laughter and giggling from the children of the family...the grown up children Yuki and her brother Nobu. Although this is a yearly event, apparently they are not terribly familiar with the meaning of the chants that they were reciting and kept having to ask eachother what line they were on. Apparently this is a yearly occurance and Yuki's father has grown tired of stopping to scold them and tell them to take the ritual more seriously, The recital continued smoothly with Yuki's dad leading the way.