Saturday, January 1, 2011

Hello, 2011!

 
New Years Eve 2010!


My kitsch Miffy Bento Box!


Super cute toothpicks!



Ross' super stylish green bento!


Best chopsticks ever!



Coolest sandwich maker ever!


YUM!


Happy New Year! We had a C-R-A-Z-Y new year eve...hahaha I kid...! We spent the night curled up in bed watching movies which is quite different to how we spent 2009 NYE but lets not go there! In Japan New Years Day is a big thing and from what we can tell a bigger deal than Christmas and New Years Eve and it is all centred around food! It is a tradition that they make new years bento boxes called Osechi. We thought this would be super fun to try out!

So off we went on a shopping expedition to Ikebukuro to buy bento boxes and lots of traditional Osechi foods from the basements of department stores and it seemed everyone else had the same idea it was chaos! We went to LOFT to buy our bento boxes. If you're in Tokyo go and check it out its so kitsch and super! I purchased a rather cheesy pink Miffy bento and Ross chose a slick green one. Ross also bought the best chopsticks which looked like coloured pencils-awesome! I also bought some animal toothpicks and some animal food cutters which I think will come in handy when Talulah starts eating- I can make everything into fun yummy rabbits, bears and elephants!

We bought a range of delicious foods such as: Namasu (carrot and radish salad), steamed chicken in ginger sauce, Banbanji (sesame steamed chicken with cucumber) some type chicken ball covered in mayo (not my cup of tea), fried rice and I made daikan and carrot fritters which we ate with kewpie mayo and spring onions! We packed them into our little bentos and gobbled it all- delish! Ross tells me (well, wikipedia tells Ross) that you eat this type of new years food over a few days so we made another one for dinner which also featured a fruit layer including little banana stars Ross made so kawaii!

Ross bought me this super cute sandwich maker so I also made him an egg and spring onion sandwich which was so yum! So today we have basically had a major food celebration which I think is a pretty great way to start the year!

We only have 2 more sleeps until we hop on the jet plane and fly back home....wow I'm excited but sad at the the same time as we've had such an amazing time in Tokyo! Happy New Year, I am pretty sure 2011 is going to be AMAZING!

3 comments:

Tiffany Atkin said...

wow, renee.. i have seriously just read pretty much your entire blog on the edge of my seat.. what an amazing tale! congratulations. i saw your comment on hello sandwich (how great is that blog!) and decided to check out the link to your blog you posted. i was reading like a mad woman, mouth open frantically clicking to the next entry. I see you go home on Monday. I actually live in shimokitazawa - it's a cute place huh! congrats again, and here's to a safe and happy journey home. I'm sure you'll be back to tokyo one day huh ;) tiff

Renee said...

HI Tiff!

Thanks for the comment! I love Hello Sandwich- it totally changed the way we saw Tokyo! Yep we fly home tomorrow am very excited but sad to leave this amazing city!

You are SO lucky to live in Shimokita its such a super 'kawaii' place! I love the shopping there!

Your blog is great- you are so talented!

Renee x

fifi said...

ha! we just spent our first nye with our 3 wk old baby girl and i agree - much different to all nye's before! we were asleep before midnight and awoke with fright at the fireworks!!!
happy new year.....