What a New Year...

So it's been a few days... sorry about that! I spent most of January 1st recovering from the night before. Forgive this part of the entry today because I feel the need to explain.
New Years Eve was quite a night. We went to downtown Umeda and grabbed some dinner (and a drink from the 7-11 because we figured that drinks at the club would be overpriced). Then we walked around thinking we were going the right direction toward the club, but we ended up going the wrong way for a bit. On the way back in the right direction, I really needed to go to the bathroom, so Casey and I ventured down some side streets to find a restaurant. When we finally found one, Casey decided to ask a few of the foreigners who were there if they knew were the club was that we were trying to find. It turns out that they were going to the same club, and they asked if we wanted to join them. There was a good mix of people in the group- a few Australians, some Brits, and their Japanese friends. We arrived at the club and started dancing and drinking. I remember it turning midnight, and everything after that becomes a bit blurry. I honestly only had 2 or 3 drinks, but you'd think I had much more than that by the way it affected me. I was so out of it at one point that when we were dancing, I fell on my butt, and it didn't really phase me very much (or the people around me for that matter- they just grabbed my arms and pulled me back up again). So we ended up leaving the club around 3:30 in the morning, and caught a train back home. Half way home, I ended up feeling really bad and asked Casey that we get off so I could use the restroom. That's when I got sick the first time. We ended up missing the next train to go home, so we sat in the cold for quite awhile. We finally got home and got to sleep around 5 a.m.. Then next morning, I pretty much wanted to die. Ended up being sick on and off until around noon. What a terrible way to start 2006! I'm still not sure what happened, but I do know that that's only the 3rd time I have ever gotten sick and I will do my best not to let it happen again.
Enough of that. Casey and I had a really nice dinner on the night of the 1st, and then we came home and watched The Phantom of the Opera. It was a good end to a strange day.
Yesterday, Casey got off of work at 1:00 and came home. We ended up going downtown and went shopping for awhile. There are a ton of sales going on right now, so I actually got a few clothing items last night. It was pretty crazy yesterday, though- there were so many people out with their families, going to shrines and temples and everything. We saw many people dressed in kimono, which was neat. If he is able to get off work early today, I think we might be going shopping again, or we may even go to Kyoto if possible.
I guess that's about it for now. I am going to load some pictures onto the Yahoo website (since Dad is itching to see some new ones!). :) Hope everyone had a nice New Years!

-Ashley