Hello! it's 
It's been a while since I've posted here as I've had a lot of work and plans for the month of December.
December is also known in Japan as "Shisu: the season when monks are busy running around with Buddhist rituals (there are various theories)", and I feel as if I myself am busy running around slamming into the end of every year.
This is my last post of the year, as the year 2023 is almost over.
Although it has already passed, I'm going to write this as a reminder of how I enjoyed spending Christmas Eve this year.
In the past, I've spent it with friends and family, seen illuminations, been to amusement parks, gone to Christmas markets and had a lot of fun... but this year, I booked an Airbnb near the sea in Kamakura and had a Christmas party with friends in secret!
Kamakura is a city in the south of Kanagawa Prefecture, a popular tourist destination for its sea and old temples and shrines.
It is famous as the setting for the manga Slam Dunk and Hot Road, as well as for Meigetsuin Temple, where hydrangeas are a spectacular sight in June, and the Great Buddha of Kamakura.
Kamakura is a place that my friends and I are used to visiting and love. Although it is a place that doesn't really feel like Christmas 😂, we were really looking forward to it.
On the day of the event, we first went to a dumpling shop in Kitakamakura and had a set meal of Kenchin Jiru, Mitarashi dumplings and Koshi-an dumplings for lunch. The weather was beautiful and the shining dango were so beautiful..!
Afterwards, we went for a walk to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine to refresh our stomachs and express our gratitude to the shrine for all it has done for us this year. It's been a while since I've been here, but it's still a very beautiful and refreshing place. Christmas and shrines don't seem to go together very well, but I was surprised to find that there were quite a lot of tourists and the place was rather crowded.
There were several food stalls, and I got carried away and ate grape and strawberry candy.
It doesn't matter, but it seems that a fruit candy called 'tanful' is also popular in Korea these days. I want to try it.
After visiting the shrine, it was time to check in, so we headed to the Airbnb we had booked.
The accommodation was a house on top of a hill looming over the sea, in a quiet residential area.
When I went inside, I was surprised to find that it was quite spacious! The inn seemed to have been renovated from an old-fashioned Japanese house for private accommodation. There was a kitchen, bathroom, living room, dining room and Japanese-style room on the ground floor, and a large bedroom on the first floor.
Overall, the house was clean, but the stairs were quite steep and old, reminding me of my great-grandfather's old house with a nostalgic feel.
I was very happy to see a kotatsu in the Japanese-style room; it was an angle of view that could have been used to film Youtube.
For dinner we decided to make pot-au-feu using a recipe recommended by a friend, so we went to a nearby supermarket to buy the ingredients.
I passed by the sea just at dusk... the sunset there was really beautiful!
The sunset on the beach with Enoshima Island and the city in view was so powerful a view that I went down to the beach and went to the surf and enjoyed the moment as much as I could. It was windy and extremely cold, but it was really beautiful.
There were three men behind us who were also impressed by the sunset and came to the beach, but they were so excited that they were running around on the beach, which was also kind of nice lol.
We finished the shopping amidst the excitement and the pot-au-feu we cooked was very tasty! We also had Christmas cake from a convenience store. It wasn't luxurious, but it was a Christmas dinner that really filled my heart!
The M-1 Grand Prix (a competition to decide who is the best MANZAI duo in Japan) was being broadcast live, so we watched the manzai and ate dinner. My friends and I are not experts in manzai, but we watch it every year and laugh.
In the night, my friends and I talked about what we've been up to and what we've found interesting recently, and we introduced recommended contents to each other... We had a silly but great time, and before we knew it, it was midnight.
The next day, I went home in the morning and started work right away, as I had a normal work day...I realised that Christmas and birthdays are just weekdays when I'm a member of society. I suffered a bit from the gap from the day before... but generally it was a happy Christmas!
Time passes quickly after Christmas, and the end of the year and the New Year arrive in the blink of an eye.
I would like to look back on all the hard work I did this year, the growth I achieved and the happy memories of fun I had, and I would like to devote myself to a healthy life next year as well!
I plan to go back to my grandparents' house and slowly eat ozoni and osechi 🎍.
Thank you for reading! I wish you all a happy New Year 🐲.
【JPN】
こんにちは！
12月は何かと仕事や予定が立て込んでしまい、久しぶりの投稿になってしまいました。
12月は日本で「師走（しわす）：お坊さんが法事で忙しく走り回るような季節（諸説あり）」とも言われますが、年末は毎年私自身もドタバタ走り回っているような忙しさがあるような気がします。
もうすぐ2023年も終わりということで、今年最後の投稿です。
もう過ぎ去ってしまいましたが、今年のクリスマスイブの過ごし方がとても楽しかったので思い出として書こうと思います。
これまでは友達や家族と過ごしたり、イルミネーションを見たり遊園地に行ったりクリスマスマーケットに行ったりと色々な楽しみ方をしてきましたが…今年は鎌倉の海の近くにAirbnbを予約して、友達とひっそりクリスマスパーティーをしました！
鎌倉市は神奈川県の南の方にある市で、海や古くからある寺・神社が観光名所として親しまれている土地です。
漫画「スラムダンク」「ホットロード」の舞台としてや、6月に紫陽花が絶景の名所となる明月院、鎌倉の大仏などが有名です。
私も友人も鎌倉は行き慣れた大好きな場所です。あまりクリスマスという感じがしない場所ではありますが😂、とても楽しみにしていました。
当日は、まず北鎌倉にある団子屋さんでけんちん汁の定食とみたらし団子、こし餡の団子をお昼ごはんにいただきました。天気も良くて輝く団子がとても綺麗でした…！
その後、腹ごなしに散歩がてら鶴岡八幡宮に行き、神社に今年お世話になった感謝を伝えました。久しぶりにここに訪れましたが、やっぱりとても美しくて気持ちがすっきりするような場所です。クリスマスと神社というあまり相性の良くなさそうな組み合わせでしたが…観光客はかなり多く割と混雑していてびっくりしました。
屋台もいくつか出ていて、浮かれてぶどう飴といちご飴を食べました。
関係ないですが、最近は韓国でも「タンフル」というフルーツ飴が流行っているみたいですね。食べてみたい。
神社を訪れた後、チェックインができる時間になったので、予約したAirbnbに向かうことに。
その宿は海に迫り出した丘の上にあり、閑静な住宅街の中にある一軒家でした。
中に入ってみると、かなり広くて驚きました！昔ながらの日本家屋を民泊用にリフォームした宿だったようです。一階にキッチン、バス・トイレ、リビング、ダイニングと和室があり、二階には広い寝室がありました。
全体的に綺麗でしたが、階段はかなり急で古く、私の曽祖父の古い家を思い出させる懐かしい感じの家でした。
和室にはこたつが置かれていてすごく嬉しかったです。Youtubeの撮影ができそうな画角でした。
晩御飯は友達オススメのレシピでポトフを作ることになり、近くのスーパーで材料を買いに行きました。
ちょうど夕暮れ時に海の近くを通りかかったのですが…そこでの夕焼けが本当に美しかったです！
江ノ島と街が見える海岸での夕焼けがあまりにも迫力ある景色だったので、思わず砂浜に降りて波打ち際まで行き、全力でその場を楽しみました。風が強くてものすごく寒かったけれど、本当に綺麗だったなあ。
私たちの後ろにも同じように夕焼けに感動して砂浜に来た男性の3人組がいたのですが、テンションが上がり砂浜を走り回っていたのもなんだか良かったです笑
感動の中買い出しを終え、調理したポトフはかなり美味しくできました！コンビニで買ったクリスマスケーキも食べました。豪華ではないけれど、ものすごく心が満たされるクリスマスディナーでした！
ちょうどM-1（漫才コンビの日本一を決める大会）の生放送があったので、漫才を見つつご飯を食べました。私も友達も漫才に詳しいわけではないけれど、なんだかんだ毎年見ては笑っています。
夜はこたつで友達と近況や最近面白かったことを語り合ったり、おすすめのコンテンツを紹介しあったり…くだらないけれど最高に楽しい時間を過ごしてあっという間に深夜になってしまいました。
次の日、私は普通に仕事だったため、朝に帰宅し、すぐに仕事を開始しました笑 社会人になるとクリスマスも誕生日もただの平日だなと実感。前日までとのギャップにちょっと苦しみましたが…総じて幸せなクリスマスでした！
クリスマスからすぐに時が過ぎ、あっという間に年末と新年がやってきますね。
今年頑張ったことや成長したこと、楽しかった幸せな思い出も振り返りつつ、来年も健康に過ごせるように精進したいと思います！
私は祖父母の家に帰省し、ゆっくりお雑煮やおせちを食べる予定です🎍
みなさま、良いお年を🐲
