New Years - Japanese Style

For Japanese, New Years or "Shogatsu" is the biggest holiday of the year. [Click on the Shogatsu link for another foreigner's webpage (who we don't know), with great photos that we wish we would have taken!]

On January 1st, we went to Sarah's friend Miwa's house, and enjoyed (well, at least tried) traditional new years food Oseichi Ryouri. It was a fun evening, sitting on the floor and applying our Japanese. They have a little girl, Yuzuki, who is Olivia's age.


On Jan 2nd, we went to our friends Manabu & Minako's house for Okonomiyaki lunch. A fun food to make together, mixing egg, flour, pork, mochi, shrimp, and various other things. Manabu and Minako are probably our best "couple" friends, and they have a daughter about the same age as Olivia. (They came to the church Christmas party with us in December.)