happy new year

How was the last day of 2014 and the first day of 2015? Hope you had a nice couple of days.

On the last day of 2014, we went to our favorite neighborhood cafe for breakfast. We also picked up some coffee as we were running low.

Lunch was toshikoshi soba, in Japan, you are supposed to eat it at midnight. In Hawaii, we usually eat it for lunch (because our family usually is ready to go to sleep at midnight), and I also thought we shouldn't really be eating soba so late, so we picked up some kakiage (fried vegetable with shrimp and squid) and had it with our soba.

Dinner was an assortment of things you usually find in the o-sechi, the traditional dishes that you eat during the new year. If you are interested I wrote up a detailed post here.

On the first day of 2015, we had ozoni (the traditional soup with mochi in it).

We then went out to various temples in our area for hatsumode (the first prayers of the new year).

Most places were closed so we were really thankful that a ramen shop in our shopping arcade was open for business.

Dinner that night was a combination of bagna cauda sauce, roasted sardines and daikon leaf pasta. Some dried fruits, cheese and other nibbles with some wine.

On the second day of 2015, we awoke to white rooftops. It had actually started snowing the day before in the afternoon, but I guess it continued through the night.

There wasn't any left on the ground, though there were some slippery spots while walking.

We visited a few more temples in our area and then had lunch at a different ramen place.

After lunch we face-timed with family in Hawaii (love technology!) and then spent the afternoon watching another blizzard whizz by our window.

This little snowman was seen while walking to pick up some food after lunch.

Tomorrow we visit MIL. I'll post about Nagasaki after Satoshi goes back to work and I more time "me-time".

I hope your first weekend of 2015 will be a nice one.

Talk to you again soon!