My teacher gave my partner and I the option of several different characters, including 虎 tora (tiger - this year's zodiac animal), 愛 ai (love), a couple I can't remember, and 夢 yume (dream).
This was a tough one. The character you choose kind of says a lot about your hopes for the coming year. I was debating between 愛 and 夢, love or dream. Which is more important?
There are so many reasons I came to Japan, many things I've learned, been disappointed by, been surprised by, enjoyed. The experience can been interpreted in so many ways. But what kind of fortune am I hoping for in the coming year? What do I still want to achieve?
I decided to go with 夢, dream. My partner did as well.
It's actually a lot harder than it looks. My teacher gave us each an example character to practice off, and several sheets of newspaper before we moved on to the rice paper for the real one.
">We each got three attempts. From which we picked what we all thought was the best of the three to keep.
May we all have fortuitous dreams this year ^_^
