Fast Away the Old Year Passes

And with a flourish of fireworks, 2012 is off to a running start. I was actually watching New Year's celebrations live in Tokyo on NHK TV, and since Japan is an hour earlier than our time zone, I got to see 2012 a bit early in their part of the world, heh.

Composite photo of the fireworks lighting up the skies above my home

As for the fireworks, there's a small window of opportunity that usually happens every New Year, and it's the 10 minutes just before 12:00 and the 10 minutes after that. During those 20 minutes, everyone tries to outdo one another by lighting the sky with all types of fireworks; it's a great, noisy sight, but it's how we always greet the New Year.

I noticed there weren't that many dangerous noisemakers being used this year, as compared to previous New Year celebrations. However, the air pollution was worse than in previous years; a thick pall of acrid smoke settled over our area for hours afterwards--it would've been great if it rained so the smoke would be washed away, but that didn't happen.

2011 was kinda meh for me--here's hoping that this year is somewhat better, even if it's supposedly the last year for everyone else and the entire planet, LOL.

Happy New Year!