Here is what we found: mochi (rice dumpling), daidai (bitter orange), Yuzu wine and dessert. The mochi are the two white balls with the plastic orange on top. Making a mochi is a two person job. One person pats the rice with water in a shallow wooden container while another smashes it with a big mallet. After Rory agreed too quickly to be the mallet welding member of the duo I decided we should buy the mochi;) Daidai is another word for "several generations". Humm bitter orange/several generations? Your guess is as good as mine
One of the desserts is in the shape of a cow due to the fact that 2009 is the year of the cow for the Japanese. 
Rory busting the mochi out of its plastic wrapping
Of course being Southern, we had to have the good luck black eyed peas along with our Japanese "treats". For those of you who aren't Southern or are not privy to this bit of information black-eyed peas are good luck when eaten to ring in the New Year;)
Mochi up close and personal. Rory had his open first and chiseled off a piece. I am not exaggerating at all when I say chiseled! This dumpling was like no other that I have ever seen or eaten. The texture and density was that of a candle. After Dylan and I tried the bland tasteless wax, Rory and I thought maybe we were eating it wrong. Were we supposed to squeeze orange on to it? Maybe heat it up a little?
Dylan with the bitter orange. 
Needless to say he quit asking for any that night. Dreadful and awful are two descriptive words that come to mind when I think of the segment I ate of the daidai. 'They' weren't lying when they described it as bitter but they did forget to say a sour & bitter orange.
We then decided to microwave the mochi. Oh my Rory said that it blew up into a huge puff ball in the microwave before turning into what you see above. After the puff mochi deflated it became like cement glue. Of course being in the spirit of uhmm.... not sure what, we tried the heated mochi which was rather nasty. So being the crazies that we are we weren't finished just yet. The next and FINAL try was to squeeze bitter orange on the mochi cement glue. At this point we were so done with the mochi!
Dessert... who doesn't love dessert! We didn't because... it was bean dessert. Everything was made from the bean paste that the Japanese are so fond of in their desserts. Oh heavens did we strike out!
Can you get four strikes? I think you can in Japan because we did with this plum liqueur. First it is in a juice box type container how crazy is that! We dumped most of it down the drain. After trying everything possible to make the mochi work to the way too sweet liqueur, we were really out!
The above picture is of a New Years decoration. Arrangements such as this one with pine and bamboo can be seen everywhere: in front of shops, near offices, on front doors, on the grill of cars and even on the ceremonial quarter deck of the USS George Washington
Do you see the man in the above picture with the arrows in his hands? There is a gentleman in the picture below with one as well. These arrows are "hamaya" (demon-breaking arrow). They are supposed to ward off bad luck and bring good fortune. As in the picture above some arrows have plaques that have the cow painted on one side and the other side blank. On the blank side the truly devoted have written their prayers and hopes for the new year.
I had heard that many people visited the shrines in traditional garb. In hopes of some good pictures Dylan and I headed to Kamakura, a nearby city which has more than 20 shrines. This is the only picture I came away with:( So much for hearing people were all dressed up. I saw a total of 5 people dressed in kimonos. This is a minute amount considering the hundreds that were clogging the streets of Kamakura.
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Another Japanese New Years tradition I read about -
" In another time-honored tradition, a minority will celebrate the year's end in quite a different fashion; they will vanish into thin air. New Year's eve, when people generally clear their debts, has become the most popular night for yonige (the midnight flight). People who have fallen into debt simply disappear in the night to start a fresh life in an anonymous city or country.
So common is the practice that it has spurned an industry of removal companies specializing in midnight dashes, even avoiding burly men with baseball bats {Big Frank} called variously benriyasan (Mr. Convenient for Anything) or yonigeya (Midnight Flight Shop). These companies are good at disappearing acts. Once a family has dashed, the yonigeya will clear out the contents of the house in 15-30minutes, storing them in a secret warehouse until they can be reunited with their fleeing clients. Full-service companies offer leased property and untraceable phone lines in a new city and can for a hefty fee, provide a new identity, which is no easy feat in tightly documented Japan."
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