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

A Nice Cafe

There are some nice cafes in Takezono, and recently my favorite is "il tinello".
The name sounds Italian but the menu has a wide variety and everything I've tried has been very good!

Yesterday I went to work for a while (book work) and I was feeling a little better so I decided to have lunch at a cafe. My husband was with me, so I took him to il tinello.

He chose the day's A Set and I chose B Set because it was simpler. There was a small appetizer, soup and then spaghetti with a simple butter sauce. My husband's course started with an oven baked oyster in its shell, followed by minnestrone soup and the main course was chicken and brown rice.

Actually my husband doesn't like brown rice, so I ate a little of the spaghetti and then ate his rice. Luckily he DOES like spaghetti so was happy to swap. And luckily for me, I really like brown rice. In hindsight, it was better for me to eat the plain rice anyway, though the spaghetti was delicious. It was al dente - cooked to perfection! :)

The set lunches include a drink. I like their cafe latte, and my husband had regular coffee. I just LOVE the cups at il tinello! I don't know where they come from, but they use pottery cups not china, and the designs are lovely. Yesterday I had my favorite cup. Next time I will ask where they bought them because I want to buy some like it. The size and shape is perfect and the glaze is rough so the texture is really nice to touch.

Ah, but yesterday lunch was my first true meal since I was sick, so later I felt a little bad. I took some medicine again and just had one mochi rice cake for dinner! Today I'm okay :)

Andrea

Stay Safe

Why does everyone seem to forget road rules at the end of the year? Not just in Japan, but in Australia too! So many people are killed in traffic accidents at this time of the year.

Today I had to go to the post office and supermarket, and just after I left my house a car almost hit mine. The woman ignored a red light. Two minutes later another woman was going to turn right in front of me, again ignoring the road rules. Then on my way home an older lady was trying to cross the street on foot and almost got hit by three cars. I don't know what she was doing because she was only 5 metres away from a pedestrian crossing with a traffic light. Wanting to hurry could have cost her life, and ruined the lives of the drivers that might have hit her.

So please leave home early and take your time on the roads over the holiday season.

On a brighter note, I'm almost well again so I'm looking forward to my holidays.

Andrea

End of year jinx?

Did you have a nice Christmas?

My Xmas Eve was great - I went to a party. There were two families plus my husband and I. It was kind of a mixture of a Japanese/English/Australian Christmas! Thanks to the K family for inviting us.

And I received a lovely End of Year Gift from NK. Thanks so much for the very delicious prawns ('shrimps' in American English)!

But Xmas night was horrible! I started to feel sick and by lunchtime yesterday I just wanted to die! I won't go into the details - but imagine a day spent either in bed or in the toilet .... I tried drinking Pocari Sweat but I couldn't keep it in my stomach, and I had a high fever and felt dizzy, so I decided to go to a clinic.

Do you know Teshirogi Clinic on Route 408? I'd only been there once before, but it is really nice and I like the staff. The doctor told me I had a stomach virus that has been going around Tsukuba lately. Hmm, what a nice Xmas present from someone!

I don't know why, but this is the third time in six years I have been really sick with a stomach virus at the end of the year! Maybe a jinx?

Anyway, today I'm really tired, but my stomach is better and my fever has gone down. But I have no energy to do 'spring' cleaning!


End of Year Gift - お歳暮
go around - 流行っている
spring cleaning - 大掃除　*

*It is called 'spring cleaning' in English because most English/European people do a thorough cleaning in the spring when the weather is better.