Kohaku Uta Gassen.

Kouhaku(red and white) Uta Gassen literally means "Red and White song battle" is an annual music show on New Year's Eve broadcast on TV and radio. The show ends shortly before midnight.So we celebrate New Year right after this program.

The program divides the most popular music artists of the year into competing team of red and white.

The red team is composed of female artists,white team is male artists.

At the end of the show,the audience and a panel of judges vote to select the winning team. This year,white(male artists) team won.

As a year end party,we held red-white song party by ourselve.It was second annual event.

It is not a Halloween costume party nor Karaoke party. We practiced secretly,bought favorite costume from amazon and hide it place family never find.

Then we just sing,sing,and sing. Laugh,laugh,and laugh.

Hatsumode.

"Hatsumode" is The first Shinto shrine visit of the New Year.

Some people visit Buddhist temple instead.

People pray for a long life and happiness for the year.

Since I worked on New Years day,I visited my favorite shrine "Futaara-san Jinnya" yesterday.

After praying,people buy "omamori"(good-luck charms of amulets.) They wear this charm all the time with them. 

The old "omamori" are returned to the shrine then they can be burned.

I bought this one. I put it in my purse so it always with me to bring me happiness this year.

On His Long Vacation.

It's so-called "fat bike" because its tires look fat. It looks heavy but it is very light to ride. The owner of this bike let my husband  ride it.

He visited us with this bike from Fukuoka pref.(southern Japan.) The distance is about 1000km! He is acrossing Japan.

He said he has purpose to visit here in Nasu. He chose bike instead of using any convenient public transpotation because he doesn't like to use electrocity!

When we open the cafe about 4 years ago,we hoped to have someone to take a break on their journey.

Finally,we have him.

Swiss Roll.

The Swiss Roll is on the menu.

I make different type of roll everyday.

These are post-it I put on the black bord as a Today's Roll.

On New Year's Eve,I counted those post-it. There were 157sheets. It means I made 157 type of swiss roll last year.

I took out all sheets. Then start to put new sheets one by one.

 

smile.

Everybody Loves Ekiden.

There are some popular new year's events in Japan. Many people back to their hometown to cereblate New Year with parents,and relatives. They favor to watch the sports event like this;Hakone Ekiden.(relay marathon by university students)

Hakone Ekiden is held on January 2nd and 3rd between Tokyo and Hakone(famos sightseeing place) 

This two-day race from Tokyo to Hakone and back is separated into give sections on each day.The distance is about 100km each day.

Each runner runs one section,alternates with the next runner at a station.Each team has ten runners and runs with team's sash which is handed over to the next runner.

If runner cannot get to a station within twenty monuts agter the top runner reached it,the next runner not allow to wait runnner to reach and have to start with substitute sash.

A Happy New Year!

A Happy New Year.

We have snow this morning.

The cafe is open.

We Love Yu.

His name is Yu Darvish from Japan.
Now,he is a pitcher for Texas Rangers.

He was a No.1 star player in Japan. Many people said he was going to play in MLB soon even while he was in junior high.

But he had denied those rumors and kept saying that he would quit playing baseball if he had to play in the USA because he loved Japan.

Few years later,he changed his mind. The situation around him was changed,I mean.
Since he was too good player,no player could win against Darvish. One of the player said to him "Let me win." He knew it was joke but he became sad. And got bored about those circumstances.

He feels like challenging.
And we have to let him go even we are sad.

I'm still not sure that's right choice to play in the U.S. because we see him struggling which we never seen.

Well,I hope he is right.