I'm late to the party. XD

Kids and I used my new steamer and made rice, veggies, and shrimp for dinner. We'll be staying up till midnight so we can have some soba (hope I have room...). Goruden and his companions are going back and forth between my place and that of my nieces' (loud spirits getting sake two places at once... at least they get along). The kids are looking forward to tossing beans (there has even been an offer by someone to play the oni for them).

I had been contemplating doing some painting with the kids, but there was too much cleaning to do first, so depending on how calm they are tomorrow we might do some then.

Happy new year to all!

SHINNEN OMEDETTO MINNASAN! Happy Dragon's Year to all my fellow Dragon clansmen and women here!

Happy new year everybody! Aww I've always wanted to be a Dragon, they're such cool critters.
Welp, there's no changing when you were born, I'll have to be happy to be a tiger

So.. is the perception of what makes a Dragon universal? I mean, does it differ from, say, China, Japan and Korea?

皆さん、明けましておめでとうございます。本年もよろしくお願いします。
To everyone, a Happy New Year, and I look forward to working with everything this year too.

Luckily, I sent out all my New Year Cards for my friends in Japan back in November, to be sure they got them... this time of year is really busy. I hope everyone's had a good start - for the first time in a while, my New Years has been great.

To answer your question, dracuella, there are slightly different perceptions on dragons in the three countries you mentioned, but more than probably Japan's and Korea's originally came from the Chinese idea.

Also, the difference in what constitutes a dragon differs whether you are speaking of Asian Dragons or Western Dragons, and even among the Western Dragons and American continent dragons there are differences and disagreements. For instance, the coatl, or feathered or water snake, is considered by some to be a type of dragon, and descriptions I have heard and read vary as to whether they are snakes with wings only, or snakes with wings and arms. This is rather different from the western conception of the heavy bodied, four legged, membrane winged, knight roaster, or the serpentine, four legged, wise rain bringer of China.

glad to have the forum back up for the new year . (only found thanks to a PM to me <<....)

I am definitely a "knight roaster", but with feathers.