For the two week winter holiday I will be off to Vietnam. I dont know what I will do there but with my shiny new camera I will take lots of pictures and put them on my site when I get back.
Until then, Happy Holidays.　良いお年を

After 5 years of faithful use, I realized that my camera needed replacement. The camera I chose was the Nikon S710. It is fairly small, lightweight, and has a lot of manual features as well for me to play with and take even better pictures to put on my site.

I made Okonomiyaki from scratch for the first time. Although I have cooked it myself in restaurants many times, this was the first time I got the ingredients and made it at home, and surprisingly it turned out delicious. I also made a sweet potato, apple, and raisin dessert

A friend invited me to a candle night concert in the park to promote awareness for the environment and excessive usage of energy. It was a small but nice event with some singers and candles all over the area. There were also some little shops, natural food stands, and a place where you could make your own candle.

However, as we were walking back to the station we came across two people also singing near the park. The two people looked very much like a famous Japanese band "Kobukuro” and singing the songs very well. In fact, as we sat up close listening and based on the crys of passing people and huge crowd that slowly formed, we realized that they were the very famous band giving a free spontaneous concert in the park. I really enjoyed the music, and have to say that I really admire the band, as even though they are extremely famous will still go back to where many aspiring artists are and sing their music for all that happen to be passing by.

We had a party for birthdays, new comers, and other things. It was quite an interesting party. The Chinese people made some Chinese food, the Korean people made some Korean food, and I made some Japanese food and ambrosia. There was a lot of talking drinking and Jenga.

Last weekend I got to meet with Mr. Hara again. He took me to the Edo Tokyo Museum to see the last day of the Ukiyoe special exhibition. Ukiyoe is a special Japanese style of making prints using elaborately carved wooden blocks. Since it was the last day the museum was very crowded but it was still very interesting. Afterward, we walked around some parks and other famous areas in the area.

Last weekend I went to a special live performance at my favorite little cafe. As always, the food and sweets were great, but the singer and guitarist were also very good.