Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve tradition!
Toshikoshisoba.  The soba (buckwheat) noodles, of course, symbolize health and long life from one year to the next.
But actually quite a good little snack while waiting for midnight.

The firecrackers in the neighborhood and around town crescendo towards midnight, and poor Penny was shivering and so scared.
It's a tradition in Hawaii to scare away bad luck with the noise, but R's family and my family didn't follow this, and, of course, we were in Tokyo while our children were growing up, so it's not in our family tradition.

A  small New Year's day lunch I have to prepare every year (habit).
Luckily, there are Japanese stores that sell these traditional food so we just pick the ones we like.
Rolled konbu, kazunoko, Tamba black beans, sweet egg rolls, dried fish, and radish.
I made our Ozoni, the good luck soup, with chicken broth, chicken, kamaboko, mochi, and fresh mizuna from Janie's garden.
Every family, of course, has it's own way of making this soup and it varies from simple to elaborate.

Uhoh, Penny has to wear her hoodie because we're going to visit the grandparents to say Happy New Years.

The Memorial Park was full of red flowers from Christmas.
Very beautiful  with the green lawns, blue ocean and sky and white clouds.

The Koolaus, really the rim of a volcano crater, are always beautiful.
May 2017, the year of the Rooster, be a peaceful year!