Lost in Translation: A Japanese Christmas!

Lucky me, I get to help Nicole with her homework! PS this is still 6th grade homework! And PS again, I really do love factoring!!!

I though this was cherry popcorn. Turns out it was shrimp. Could you tell? I couldn't either. I had to wash my mouth out with Mountain Dew!!!

I was invited to a rice pounding party! First they gave me a jacket so I would look the part...

And a bow!

When it was our turn (we went in the second round), and I got to walk up to the plate... Mortar... Sledgehammer... I got to pound the rice 5 times with the sledge hammer!

Kampai!

Actually, I really never understood what they were saying when the rice was struck....

But many dishes were prepared for us already to try. That is a soy soaked seaweed (took away the fishy flavor) with mochi inside, a delicious broth with veggies and mochi in the bottom,

A sweet bean paste/soup with mochi at the bottom...

They also had a piece with sesame paste over the top of mochi, aaaaand a mochi topped with kimchi or cabbage or something... Most of what we tried was good! It made me miss my friend's butter mochi!! But I felt like I ate something really heavy, even though I only had a few bites!

Later, Ramona and I found tomato gum. Tomato. Gum. It was sweet! And weird!!! I'm done!!

I drove my friend to Hach to pick up their new van! Cool wheels, huh?

I haven't been running in almost 2 weeks. It's icy and snowy. Well, it was.... Now it's just chilly. Anyway, a friend told me he transformed his wife's running shoes into winter running shoes! Those are some kind of tacks... Roofing tacks? Anyway, the dave-guy is going to help me with mine!! I just haven't told him yet!!

We went out for Mexican (Japanese Mexican?) for a farewell for a coworker. nic was so excited!

Such weird animals in Japan! Spooning reindeer!!

The MDG Christmas party was a masquerade! (Actually, almost every squadron had a masquerade this Christmas! Maybe I should help pick an original idea next year!!).

I'm planning a trip to Tokyo next summer... I've started studying the subway system early. I hope it makes sense to me soon!!!

I'm not sure what this is. I think it was a mask... At the 100¥ store.. A pickle ninja?

And there were these adorable kids singing Christmas carols on Christmas Eve day at the post office!!! It was cute!

I firmly believe in family traditions around the holidays... It's not my fault the rest of my family doesn't like eggs Benedict!! nic had no ham on hers and the dave guy just had an egg mc muffin, no hollandaise!

Christmas was fun! Except nic was sad I didn't have anything in my stocking on Christmas morning! So she and dave picked a few things out of the hall closet to give me! Look, the straightener ann gave me a couple years ago, And the necklace I found at the recycle shop! And some other fun products!!

Tink loves Marge!

And dave loves his pillow and new hat!

And Nicole had the BEST look on her face when she opened her electric violin! I think she likes it!!

Later, we went to the lodge for a potluck Christmas dinner/party! There was turkey and ham and roast, a bajillion side dishes and desserts, and then we played a collection of minute to win it games! This is the Christmas conveyor belt.