Some may wonder what the title means… But it is a bad attempt for a joke in Japanese that is not even funny in Japanese, and even less so if translated to English or any other language, I guess. Just trust me on that. I invented the joke in Tokorozawa, just before taking Coco on a walk.
Saturday was lovely weather and Sunday was OK with just a little bit of clouds. Still nice weather for a walk. As always Coco hate having his picture taken so to get one half-good picture you have to take about a thousand (maybe that is why a picture say more than 1000 words?).
After a few days in Tokorozawa with a lot of walking and a lot of good food we went back to Tokyo today. We returned late in the night to avoid most of the heavy return-to-Tokyo traffic. Still, it was a bit slow and it took about 30 minutes longer than usual.
As we returned late we spend the whole day in Tokorozawa. I took a long walk with Coco again. And we spend some time just sitting on a wood stock enjoying the sunshine. I am not sure what it is, maybe the new year, but around this time of the year the weather has, as long as I been in Japan during new year (for around 9 years now), the weather has always been great.
In the evening we had left overs and some Chinese dishes. Yummy.
Every year we also visit the shrine not far from Chie’s mother’s place. Since Coco joined the family he comes along as well. The main purpose of the walk to the shrine is to get some fresh air, some exercise and to get us each a tiger.
The tiger is protecting the “owner” throughout the year. From illness and other bad things, such as vampires and werewolves 😉
Quite a few people visit the shrines and temples in the beginning of the new year. Mainly to send some prayers to whatever god they believe in for a prosperous year without illness, or maybe to pass the entry exams for Tokyo University.
So even though we got here the first day of the year, many had already been here to get their own tiger. My guess is that in the next coming days there will be a quite a lot more tigers lined up for duty.
Once we got back home Chie went to buy some groceries. Coco took his favorite waiting position. On a chair in the living room where he can observe what is happening on the street outside. This is where he usually waits once he knows Chie and I am going to visit, sometimes days in advance 🙂
For dinner we had traditional Japanese New Year’s food. I think I wrote about this in a blog post last year as well. Basically, preserved food to last during the 4 or so days when store were closed. Maybe it doesn’t sound so nice bit it is quite tasty.
A great day in Tokorozawa again. The sun was shining so Coco and I had a long walk again. And as usual it was not easy to get a photo of Coco. He totally hates taking photos, and it makes you feel like a paparazzi. Though sometimes you catch him off guard, like when he is relaxing at home after a walk 🙂
After the walk we drove to the Tokorozawa fish market. It is nothing compared to the fish market in Tsukiji (biggest in the world) but it is still quite busy during the New Year.
For dinner we had hand rolled sushi and crab. As usual. But hey, if it tastes good it tastes good every year 🙂
Unfortunately I was so tired that I could not stay up and wait for the new year. I just got to bed at 10:30 pm and slept instead
Today we went to Tokorozawa for the New Year. Once we got there I as usual took Coco for a long walk. He seemed to enjoy it, the photo session with me being the exception. Oh, this is a nice feature of my new iPod Touch… Using the front camera to take a photo of yourself so that you can see what you are doing (though the quality is not the best).
As per our tradition we had shabu-shabu for dinner. Same procedure as last year 🙂 It may seem boring to have the same food before New Year every year but, in my opinion, you can never have too much shabu-shabu. It is delicious 😛
