New Year's Eve

Wow, New Year's Eve! This year has gone past so quickly ...


Today was a busy day - first shopping, then a frenzy of cleaning. And I made 'kagami mochi' with some round rice cakes that my mother-in-law sent from Kagoshima. Check out the picture :) The mandarine orange on top came from my parents-in-law's garden. It is an offering to the gods for New Year.

This year we bought a New Year's food box from Tsukuba Hotel Okura. We picked it up today and in the hotel lobby found some really Japanese decorations. I don't know what the feathers are for, but the thing that looks like a doll is really a kind of wooden bat with a decorated padded back side. The bat is used for a kind of traditional Japanese badminton played on New Year's Day.

Tonight we are watching this and that on TV, eating snacks, and just ate 'otoshikoshi soba'. Buckwheat noodles eaten on New Year's Eve to wish for a long life.




It is kind of boring with just the two of us. More fun in Kagoshima with parents-in-law and other family members. We usually play cards etc, and then go to the local temple to pray at midnight. This year is the second in a row we have stayed at home and not travelled. It is a pity there is no temple near our house here in Tsukuba.

Just 90 minutes to go and it will be 2006 ...

Andrea