7 years an oyomesan at oshogatsu...

SEVEN Japanese New Years with Okaasan!!
SEVEN!

I just went back over this blog and looked. Cos I am a sad person with nothing better to do on December 31st at 8.30 pm.


Actually, I am knackered. Today I went with friends and covered about 7 km on cross country skis in a park near Sapporo. It was beautiful, hard work and fun.

And then I came home - scraped the burned pan that Okaasan had left from lunchtime heating up, had a long bath and opened the wine..

And cooked New Year dinner for Okaasan.

Again.

In 2008: Okaasan cooked New Year food in my tiny kitchen, and I assisted her. It was hard work because she kept forgetting what she's just done with seasoning and timeing.

In 2009: I bought stuff from the supermarket and heated it up.

In 2010: I took Okaasan shopping for all the ingredients and it took over five hours to help her cook all the stuff. A stressy experience for both of us.

In 2011: I bought ready made, I asked her about the taste just before serving.

In 2012: I had a Japanese cooking lesson in autumn and did an amazing spread! Okaasan was impressed.

In 2013: Instant noodles and shop stuff.

This year?

Instant noodles dressed up to make it interesting.

After I'd finished loading stuff in the bowls - and hiding the instant packaging...it looked like this:

And tomorrow we'll eat the things Okaasan bought the other day and some readymade I bought.

So, Okaasan and me sat at the dinner table to end another year of being forced to live together...

Not so much chat about New Years past this time. A little about cooking, then just chat about the cat and how pink his nose is.

As I was clearing the dishes Okaasan looked around the kitchen.

"What day is today then?"

"December 31st, that's why we just ate toshikoshi (longlife) noodles..."

"Oh? December 31st today? I forget many things now, it's strange..."

"Yes, we know. It's ok. You are still healthy in your body, and enjoy eating and drinking and laughing. Don't worry...."

And so we finished dinner and another year. I checked the heating in her room. Made sure the TV was switched to the channel with old fashioned singers on it...and left her to doze into 2015...

Thankyou all for reading this blog this year. I've been a bit patchy on the blogging. 

Time for wine and chocolate, and something on cable TV that has nothing to do with Japanese end of year!!

See you on the other side :-)