Christmas and New Year!!!

Okay, I'm tardy again. Anyway, what did I do last Christmas? On the 24th, I went to Church as usual, then treated myself to some treats. It was actually serendipituous that my sister mentioned something about Ragnarok. (I used to play) Well, Circle K and Sun R Us Conbini chain here has a special Poring Bun. The bun is a pink siopao bun!!! I love the texture of siopao bread and could eat a lot of it! Too bad it was a dessert bun, if it wasn't I would've eaten more. The filling is yema-like. It comes in 3 types with just the facial features changing. Too bad the one I got looked diseased. It isn't intentional though! Something prolly happened to it when it was steaming.

Did you know that 25th of December is a working day here in Japan. Wow!!! It meant I had to go to the school where I have a part-time job in. But I was a bit sneaky. I spent the entire Christmas eve (yahoo!) baking 50 cupcakes for the kids and the senseis as a "bribe" so that I could be excused from work. Plus I had to go to Church. So with work out of the way and
after Church, I walked around to see some of the restaurants which used to be closed on Sundays open now (since it is a Monday). I treated myself to a Balinese restaurant and wanted to eat spicy curry (would've been perfect for a cold day). Unfortunately, either Balinese food isn't at all spicy or this restaurant tweaked its recipe to cater to Japanese tastes, the curry wasn't spicy at all. But I still enjoyed a warm meal!

Prior to Christmas, me with a few foreign students and a lady from the Community Center went to Tachikawa to see the "Christmas Illumination" which is supposed to be a big event during Christmas. I was curious, since it was held in a very huuuuge park. When we arrived, there were lots of people. Unfortunately, the illumination was only limited to a small portion of the park. It was still impressive though! Lots of food stalls selling warm food, live music and the like. But we went to early, around 4-ish. The 5-minute fireworks display was going to happen at 8 pm. So rather than stay 4 hours for a 5-minute show in the cold, we decided to head back home. The funny thing is that it reminded me of the illumination shows I used to go to in SM Jaro as a kid, to Angelicum as a teen and to Greenhills as a college student. memories....haha!




































As for the New Year, I ordered soba and osechiryouri (御節料理）. Soba was to be the last meal eaten before the New Year. I ordered myself a set with Tempura (you can eat it with anything or plain). Unfortunately, the set I got was good for three, hence I still have a lot left which I kept on eating until the today. I know my noodles are tangled and difficult to eat, so sue me! haha!
The third picture is a mochi, which we are supposed to eat on the 11th of January! hehe! yum yum!













With regards to the osechiryouri, I ordered the cheapest one they had. You'd think it was small, but according to the Japanese, it would last me for three days. I doubted, thinking I could eat everything in a day. But wow! I was sooo much that I just finished it today! haha! But I did make a boo-boo. Osechiryouri is supposed to be placed in a decorative box. Unfortunately for me, I thought it would be delivered as such. This was a DIY thing, and I didn't have the box. So I ended up eating it in a very unelegant fashion! haha! For those interested here is the link to what was inside the box.

Osechiryouri

A little later, Nomi decided to throw a New Party for the A-Class people who were in the dorm. It was me, Nomi, Diaby, Angel, Bac and his wife and newcomer Khan (Bangladeshi). Nomi cooked a lot of delicious Indian dishes. I made a cake which I just discovered from a website. It is surpisingly easy, it is called Mille Crepe Cake (which is technically stacking crepes one on top of another with filling in between). I used tablea which I made into a paste rather than a drink. Here is our party spread.