My New Year’s resolutions for 2017

I rarely go anywhere on New Year's Day, but this year I saw a friend of mine at Starbucks on that day and shared our New Year’s resolutions.

My new year’s resolutions for 2017 are as follows:

1. I will live my life with the commitment to love: to give and receive love in every interaction.

2. I will keep only the things that spark joy in my life.

3. I will be able to speak English fluently.

Yesterday, I saw my best friend. She is always with me whenever I need some help.

We went to Kobe by car. She drove, and we enjoyed chatting for hours in the car.

We also went to a ramen place at midnight!

I am lucky to have a couple of friends who I can trust.

Keeping only the things spark joy

I have been working on decluttering according to the following app.

KonMari

This morning I began decluttering “paper”, which was  a great challenge for me.
I have kept too much paper including receipts, handouts, instruction manuals, and etc.

I already finished decluttering “clothes” and “books.”
It was a lot of fun, because the app guides me what to do step by step.

My new year's resolution is to to keep only the things spark joy!

108 sun salutation

This morning, I went to yoga class and did 108 sun salutation for the first time in my life.

It was OK until the instructor let us know it was the 100th sun salutation but suddenly I couldn’t brace myself on my arms when I tried the 101st one.

Anyway, I followed the instruction by the instructor until the end.

When I finished the sun salutation I sweat a lot and I felt refreshed!

Christmas party

Yesterday I attended a Christmas party at my favorite cafe.

The food served at the party was just amazing!

The couple who married a couple of months ago cooked the mediterranean dishes for us.

The husband is a Greek-Canadian and his wife is a Japanese.  They are a lovely couple!

I enjoyed the food I rarely eat including turkey, root crop saute, pottage of lentils, quinoa salad, pumpkin tart, rice malt bread.

Stollen she baked was tasty, too.  She said that she loves baking stollen, so she bakes it almost every day.

I had a good time with wonderful people.

Lovely Christmas present

Yesterday I received a lovely Christmas present from one of the staff members at Starbucks I always stop by.

I am always grateful for her warm hospitality ❤️

Banana pancake

This morning I baked "Banana pancake."

I also simmered an apple, a potato, and raisons as topping for the cake.

The texture of the pancake was fluffy and the combination of the pancake and the topping was awesome!

The recipes are as follows:

<Banana pancake>

INGREDIENTS (For four to five servings)

banana : 1
weak flour (cake flour) : 6 tablespoons
baking powder : 2/3 teaspoons
salt : dash
soy milk : 5 tablespoons

coconut oil : 1 tablespoon

1. mash a banana to a pulp with a fork
2. put the flour, baking powder, salt and soy milk into 1 and mix them with a spoon.

3. put the coconut oil in the pan.
4. pour 2 in the pan and cover it with the lid.

<simmered apple, sweet potato & raisons>

INGREDIENTS (For four to five servings)
apple : 1
sweet potato : 1
raisons : adjust to suit your needs
salt : dash
rum : splash

1. cut an apple and a sweet potato into bite-size chunks.
2. put 1 into the pan and simmer for a while.
3. add raisons, salt, rum into 2.

I visited Wakayama.

Yesterday I visited Wakayama with my best friend.

She drove all the time.  I hope to drive again next year!

First we visited "Toretore market," which sells a voluminous number of souvenirs in Wakaya as well as serves seafood meals.

https://en.visitwakayama.jp/venues/venue_75/

The meals were yum and had reasonable price.

I enjoyed eating Toretore set, which includes soba noodle and a bowl of rice topped with deep-fried prawns.

After having the meal, we visited "Senjojiki." 

There were few people there and it was such a quiet spot that I felt comfortable with the sound of the waves.

Then we move to "Engetsuto."

It has a unique shape and I loved staying there for a while because it led to the purification of my mind and body.

Anyway I want to come back to "Toretore market"!

I'm sure you will like the market, too!