While most Japanese traditioanaly clean up before and after New Years, Americans usually do it during the summer and spring. Why you ask? well in the summer, kids come home from school and have lots of free time on their hands. Their parents take this oppourtunity to force the kids to do some hard worker. “Its time to clean up your rooms!” parents say while they sit back and relax now that they ahve their kids to do some work. And its only fair since the parents work the whole time while the kids are at school. I should know. Ever since I’ve been home I’ve been doing lots of manual labor. I’ve had to wash cars, vacuum the house, take out all the trash, and clean the house on a daily basis. I also got to make a new bed for my two sisters. Building it was fun, but cleaning it wasn’t =p at least I get to relax when my parents are at work!