Happy New Year

It’s already January and oh my, it’s been two months since we’ve posted. It’s time for some serious catching up! 

Although this blog is dedicated to showing off places to visit in Hawaii, there are times when nothing can compare with Mom’s kitchen. New Years is huge in the Japanese culture, and my mom spends the week between Christmas and New Years cutting ingredients into perfectly uniform little pieces for each of her dishes: Nishime, a chicken stew with Asian vegetables and a shoyu-sugar base; Ozoni, a clam-based soup with mochi that you eat for good luck; and bara sushi, a mixed-up sushi that in my mom’s case, is filled with color. At times, we’ve asked if she’d like a hand cooking, but she always says no. She  says it’s her gift to us, and she knows that we’re always grateful.