My friend, Jennifer, and I were invited for a New Years celebration lunch to our friend Tomoyo's home. She is someone we met when we first moved here. We were introduced by our friends the Thompsons, and have been visiting her and her family at their family owned restaurant ever since. Tomoyo and her family are some of the nicest and most genuine people we know. They are just wonderful. She took the missionary discussions and was baptized. It can be hard to convert japanese because their traditions and culture are very deep rooted and go way way back. She is the most loveable and teachable person i know. Everytime we go visit them at their restaurant we always make sure to bring a gift. They always have some sort of gift they give to us as well. That's a japanese thing too. So, when i went to her home i decided to bring a bouquet of flowers this time. They are really into flowers. Anyway, below is a picture of some of the food they made for us. It was soooooooo delicious. One of Tomoyo's friends made something kind of like a chicken salad. It was good. They also had daikon, which is a big white radish that's popular here. It was sliced, and had been boiled, topped with miso paste. It was surprisingly very good. They also had some bamboo, that was very good. She made egg rolls that were amazing. And they had the best miso soup ive ever had since living here. Man it was good. The tofu in it was amazing. They also had some apple raisin bread, and some other breads that i didn't try. And she made this amazing drink that consisted of gingerale, cucumbers, ginger, mint, and couple more things in it. It was awesome. I am going to get the recipe. :) Now that i know what japanese food should taste like, i am going to be disappointed anytime i eat japanese back in the states.
The missionaries were also invited to this lunch, and jaydon came along with me. Jaydon wasn't sure what to do with all the eyes that kept looking at him and gawking all over him. It made him very uncomfortable and he kept burying his face in my lap. :) I think the missionaries thought they were coming for a discussion on the temple, but it didn't go that way. :) Everyone there, including my friend jennifer, could understand most of what our japanese friends were saying, except for me. It was a bit awkward at times, but it was interesting and fun. :)
Next to Jaydon is my friend Nozomi. She is the daughter-in-law to Tomoyo. She also has three boys like us, and she is now pregnant with her fourth. She is so kind and loving. Next to Nozomi is Tomoyo. She has the kindest spirit of anyone i know. Next to her is my friend Jennifer. She and her family have lived here for about 7 years. Next to her, more towards the back, is Eiko. I don't know if i am spelling that right. She is very sweet, and i learned that she knows how to speak French. Very cool. :) She enjoyed trying to converse with me through translations on her iphone. :) I can't remember the other two ladies names. They were a bit harder to remember. :( But they were soooo entirely kind. I really loved their company and who they are. The missionaries were from Pocatello, and from Utah...Elder Wood was from Pocatello and Elder Budge( i think i have it wrong) was from Utah. Elder Wood just arrived on island and was very new. The other Elder had been here since August. He was really good at speaking japanese though.
After we ate and took some pictures it was time for another japanese tradition. She bought everyone these special papers, with a hard cover on the back. She pulled out her special black ink and brush and everyone was supposed to write, in Kanji, their New Year wish or Hope for the year. Someone wrote , peace, in Kanji. Someone else wrote something about being surrounded by good friends. For mine i wanted , inner peace. It's actually a thing we have in our family, and something we took from Kung Fu Panda 2. I was trying to tell them inner peace so they could help me figure out the kanji for it. It took awhile for them to understand what i was saying. :)
Here's Tomoyo trying to show me how to write it. We practiced on newspaper first. They are amazing at writing it so well. I learned how to write it and actually did my own, but when i compared mine to theirs i realized mine looked like a little kids handwriting. :)
I don't know if you can see mine ...i just finished it on that piece of paper on the newspaper. :)
It was such a fun afternoon spent with wonderful people, and excellent food. I'm so happy to have gotten to know Tomoyo and her friends and family. As a parting gift, her husband gave Jennifer and i some smoked pork roast. He makes a lot of that for their restaurant, so he gave us some meat to take home. He also smokes chicken. It's very good. She had a lovely home, and it was fun to see and go inside an actual japanese friend's house. :)
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