North 40-40 yet again

Since now my friends are back to Misawa, i finally have the chance to bring them to one of my favourite restaurant North 40-40. As usual, they did not disappoint me. 

There was a funny incident that happened when we entered, in the midst of hanging our jackets, Bao broke 1 of their hangers. I am not sure it was due to his scarf that weights and looks like a blanket or he was simply too strong haha! I hope the owners do not view it as bad omen for their start of 2014!

fish set

beef set

apple pie

they looked so happy...!

Delicious Pho!

Went to gym with my friends, i need to start getting back into shape or at the very least stop having shoulder aches. Cutting down on food prove to be difficult due to Shota and my friends superb cooking, every time when i protest and say too much, they will make the meal look and smell so good that i be an idiot to resist lol! So after the gym, i went to their house and they make me their Vietnamese home dish called Phoy. Its basically consist of vermicelli noodles in ox tail soup and mixture of meat and vegetables depending how you like it. As expected, it tasted so good! 

ox tail soup that would be eaten for at least a week!

you place e ingredients in before adding the soup

da ta! Final Pho!

Kristi's meaty Pho, Bao's healthy Pho and mine already start eating Pho !lol!

Yes i can do it... Go on!

Shoulder aches go away!

Mango strawberry smoothie 

永遠の0

Under Shota's persuasion and with his "please go with me & i really want to watch this" puppy eyes begging me, i agreed to watch the Japanese war film with him. Typically i have zero interest in this genre of movie type. However i found myself in tears 50% throughout movie even when there no subtitle nor kanji on the screen and so many question marks. Towards the end, i could roughly understand what it is about. 

Shall not go into details of movie, but it make me understand how the war has different sides of view and ultimately there are no winners in the war regardless which side won.   

New Year Part 2

The next day we awoke up pretty late and okaasan prepared ozōni (お雑煮) , which is soup with mochi rice cake, chicken and others in it. This is the dish all Japanese will eat on the New Year morning. Afterwards, they drove me to shrine to pray as well. There were tons of people queuing to buy the amulets omamori （お守り, we joined the queue as well to buy omkuji. Omkuji is a written oracle which you will shake the box til a stick with stated number will fall out and they will give you a paper with prediction of your fortune for this year. Both Shota and i got 大吉! Okaasan got only 末吉.

May it will be a great year for us as the fortunes say! 

お雑煮

They are making free red bean mochi for whoever that visit the shrine

its sweet and warm, prefect for such a cold day!

queuing up to buy those fortune prediction 

mine is on e right, shota on e left

waiting for our turn to try out luck on getting the gifts

i got the 2nd prize! how lucky! 3000 yen shopping voucher!

every shop is selling Fukubukuro, 福袋. It is a real bargain to buy, items in it cost more than what you pay for. It is what japanese are waiting for during New Year 

Mochi

Red bean paste mochi

Dinner! Scallops 

super sweet kani!

to rest my stomach, my fil cooked crab egg porridge.

my steak lol

Happy New Year 2014

Its a few days late but still.... Happy new year 2014. May it be a wonderful year for all of us! 

2013 is an eventful year for me.. I got married in June, moved to Japan in July and obtained my driving license in November with all the tests within 1st try when i failed twice back in my home country. Funny isn't it? 

For the new year, we went back to my in law house to celebrate their Japanese New Year called (お正月, oshōgatsu). It is one of their important festivals in the year and each family will gather together and welcome the new coming year. Before that my in laws asked what type of expensive food do i wish to eat? I replied its daijiobu anything that you prepared, do not need to be expensive. Shota then interrupted and explained during only for お正月, we need to prepare expensive food that we typically do not eat. Without hesitation i choose kani! Japanese crabs are so sweet but so costly that i had yet to taste since i got here.

All of us gathered at obaa-chan house, watching tv and chatting while eating the hotpot nabe and crab. We also had mochi wrapped in seaweed with soy sauce over it. Mochi on its own its tasteless but with seaweed and soy sauce, it had the crunchy and salty texture.

Shota and i also received otoshidama *お年玉*, similar to red packets in chinese new year from them. I had already use it to buy mountain jacket the very next day lol! Its -6 degree as im typing away. Apparently on 1st Jan - 3 Jan they always have huge discount for all shops hence people will start queuing up for the brands they are aiming for. 

Having lunch at indian restaurant 

My father in law at work lol

porcupine fish sashimi!

 お節料理 osechi, specially eaten during New Year

hotpot

its made from red bean.

Welcome Back!

Kristi is back to spend the new year with Bao! I am so happy my good friend is back! They invited us to their home for dinner, they sure prepared mouth savouring feast for us! Their apartment is fully carpeted with heater. Sighhh..... How nice!

Sad to say, Shota forced me to weight myself on their weighing scale. To my horror, i had gained 6kg!!! I had gained at least 1 kg each month! No............!! Its time to put on my gym clothes that Kristi gave me into good use. Thank you for giving me those gifts.

Welcome back Kristi!  

roasted beef

mashed potato and we brought along chilli prawns and yaki soba noodles.

Look at the amount of food!

Trying on Bao's helmets