New Year’s Evening

4 degrees in the room as I woke up this morning. My breath made a puffy little white cloud. I got dressed in light speed to get down to the warm kitchen as soon as possible.

When it got warmer outside Coco took me for a walk again. The sky was blue and it was very nice day. Though a little bit cold in the wind.

In the evening we watched some typical Japanese New Year’s T programs. Like K-1 fighting and some kind of sing contest or rather sing performance of famous Japanese artists. I prefer the K-1. But I agree that it is better to watch Japanese artist sing old style songs than watching K-1 while having dinner.

New year's dinner

Since it was New Year’s evening we had hand-roll sushi and crab. It was deliscious and we ate for a long time. Many of my favorite fishes were there, such as chu-toro and kampachi. The only thing that we did not eat was the salmon, which is not considered a good fish for sushi in Japan.

Raw fish for sushi Crab

We all got quite tired after eating too much. But only Chie and Coco took a night nap. I had my nap during the afternoon instead. Once Coco woke up he wanted to play again.

Chie and Coco sleeping Coco

Going to Tokorozawa for New Year

Quite early in the morning we took the car to Tokorozawa to spend the New Year. We bought the breakfast at Dotour and had breakfast in the car. Arriving in Tokorozawa we had green tea and some sweets as we usually do.

Then I had a walk with Coco as I usually do. Back at home I continued to play with Coco. Had a nap. Watched part of the last episode, or maybe it was a movie, of Hajime no Ippo where he fights a title match, looses and dies. Afterwards I swopped channels and Naruto was on. Then it was time for shabu-shabu dinner.

After dinner we continued to relax, watching TV and talking. Quite early I went to the secnd floor, entered my electric heated bed, put something on my head since I knew that it will be cold in the morning. And went to sleep.

Dinner at Koei

After ordering the Taylor Made shirt at Isetan Chie and I continued to the Koei restaurant. It is a Korean BBQ restaurant in Shijuku. We met Mina-sensei there and… Vegetarians may want to stop reading now… Set in to eating as much grilled meat as possible. And we had a lot.

Chie and Johan Johan and Mina-sensei

After 2 hours they asked for the last order. It turned out the restaurant had a 2 our limit when you make a reservation. With some negotiation we managed to extend this to 2.5 hours, and a free bottle of Korean chochu (alcohol).

Rolling out of the restaurant around 8:30 pm we continued rolling to the Shinjuku JR station. Mina-sensei went her way and Chie and I went our way, taking the Yamate-sen (former Yamanote-sen) to Shibuya. In Shibuya we pushed our way throught the crowds to the bus stop and… Just missed the bus.

Shibuya by night

Since it is almost New Year we got into a cab, an ugly green colored one, and got home.

Taylor Made Shirt

Yoshiki-san got a taylor made shirt from some of his business associates. Fortunately for me it was bought at a store in Isetan in Shinjuku. And Yoshiki-san hates going to Shinjuku so much he gave the shirt to me. So on our way to dinner at Koei we stopped by Isetan and got my body measured.

Measuring for Taylor Made shirt

It turned out that the shirt was one of the most expensive in the shop, 30000 JPY or currently 2600 SEK. I thought that was a bit expensive for a shirt so I picked up two different patterned cloth to make the shirt of. Also added dry cleaning initials at the neck. And put my name in kanji on the left upper sleave and asked them to deliver the shirts when finished in January. I had to add 5000 JPY or currently around 400 SEK. Pretty cheap for two taylor made shirts.

Placing the order

Now the store has my measures so whenever I feel to have a 30000 JPY shirt made I can go there and just order one.

Oh, a funny thing happened while measuring. The old Japanese gentleman measuring me was measuring my arm lengths from the neck and down to the end of my pinky finger. He did this once, twice, a few times. Then said that my right arm was about 1 cm longer than the left one. So I’m a freak!