Variations of welcoming in the New Year are too numerous to be taken up in this short article, which is meant to be a brief introduction to the Japanese New Year's. Some people celebrate the holiday by going abroad (although this year's statistic of the number of Japanese spending the New Year's overseas is the lowest in 17 years), others hit the ski slopes, and yet others enjoy the ever-popular 'neshogatsu', which literally translates as 'sleeping through the New Years' and is a New Years spent quietly sleeping and lying around the house.