A friend and I went to Enoshima and Enoshima Aquarium. From my new place it now only takes 15 minutes to Kamakura and less than 30 minutes to Enoshima.

Here is one of the cats that are all over the island.

We ate Chirashi-don: lots and lots of little fish, both cooked and raw.

At the aquarium. The dolphin area was not that big and the show was pretty much dolphins jumping out of the water, but the musical style of the show with the trainers/singers was fairly entertaining.

The view from Enoshima tower. Which can also be seen in the background of the jumping dolphin.

I once again made Chirashi Sushi.

After about a five month absence, it was time to once again go hiking with my hiking club. This months hiking course was to ShiroYama. It is not a very long or difficult hike, and even for December the weather was nice and warm.

The day’s guide and chef.

Visiting the temple at the start of the course.

Heading up.

The leader for the day is from China, and made some great Chinese food: Stir fry, Gyoza, and TanYuen.

Group picture.

Today I started my new job.
I went through training last week, but today I finally got to see where I will work and start working. I am very fortunate to have gotten the job and am very thankful to a friend who set me up with it. However, my new company is finally NOT a Japanese company, and I will be receiving all sorts of benefits that I have never gotten before. I am now the new Web Developer for the office in Yokosuka, Japan.

The first event at my new house was a "Lets make Soba” party. The house owner also has some farm land where he grows, among other things, Soba. For this reason, instead of the typical buying of the Soba flour from the store, we made Soba noodles from absolute scratch. The house owner does not play around when it comes to parties, and brought over all his tools and toys including a meat smoker and about 5 kilos of meat.
So here is how to have a Soba party:

Put the meat on hooks and place in the smoker. Start smoking the meat.

The raw Soba grain.

Shake to remove any leftover dirt, sticks, etc.

Use cool machine to separate the seed from the shell.

Sift to filter the seeds from the shells. The inside seed is a slightly greenish color.

Put seed back into cool machine to make Soba flour.

Mix with water and flour and knead till firm.

Create 100g serving sizes, use another tool to knead further and cut into long Soba noodles.

Remove meat from smoker

Brush on secret seasonings.

Soba, meat, Tempura, and lots of other goodies…

Eat and drink until all gone.

I was very happy to discover a small mountain and hiking course very close to my new house. Mt. Enkai, while only a pitiful 150 meters high, has a really outstanding view of the Yokohama area. On a clear day you can see Tokyo and well into Chiba.

There is also some hiking courses on and around the mountain. I took some pictures along one of the courses.
The following is entitled: Looking Up.