It is passion fruit this time! Kitkat has collaborated with the famous posh pastry shop LE PATISSIER TAKAGI (in Japanese)! I can see that the Valentine's Day battle is now in full swing at every store in Japan. This Kitkat has quite a strong sweet and sour citrus flavour. Nice but not so special. I thought the package design is super disgusting! LE PATISSIER TAKAGI is well-supported by wealthy ladies in the Setagaya area. I can't belive that the patissier also made a HELLO KITTY box, which cost ¥53,600 (£276)! How silly! KITTY turned 30 last year, is she a grown up posh cat now?!

When I was a kid, I used to cut my tongue on candy. I still feel a bit uncomfortable eating candies sometimes, but I needed some cough drops for my sore throat. I found German mints called OLBAS in our first aid box. I remember that C bought it in Germany. I put one tablet in my mouth and a childhood memory came back to me. It reminded me of an old mint candy called calumin (I didn't know that it means calcium + mint) by Meiji confectionery company. I used to eat it a lot, always had it with me on school excursions, but I haven't had it for more than 20 years now. Anyway I'm so surprised that it's still available in shops. I've never seen it though...

I've been thinking to learn brush calligraphy since I came back to Japan. I used to have a calligraphy lesson once a week when I was a kid, but now I can't go to lesson regularly and I can't make the effort to keep learning (it takes years to learn many things). The TV ads for U-can (a correspondence study programs in Japan) has been on air all the time since New Year's, and I decided to take it. For me it's very good to learn important points very quickly, I'm not trying to be a teacher. Today I received writing instruments, text books and a video tape. My aim is to write New Year's cards with my brush. My dear friends, if you don't receive cards from me next year, don't ask me why!

I've been trying not to use computer because my eyes go bloodshot from too much net auction and netsurfing. I also haven't updated my blog recently and I was going to update yesterday but I couldn't. I caught a cold again and I'm staying in futon! I think that walking to the DVD shop in snowy rain on Sunday night caused me this cold. I hate seeing a doctor but my joints hurt and my temperature didn't go down, so I decided to see a doctor. I had a flu test (the doctor put a thin and super long stick deep inside my nose!) and the result was negative. I'm relieved, but I'm bit worried about my temperature. It reached 39.6°C last night. I sweat like hell, it was almost like a sauna!

C came back from a snowboard trip in Hokkaido. He brought my favourite Marusei Butter Sand (Japanese) by Rokkatei. They are biscuits with a filling of cream (made of butter and white chocolate) and rum raisins. It's similar to Raisin-wich from Ogawaken (Japanese), but I prefer Butter Sand, it has a stronger, richer flavour. The package design is also very beautiful. It was designed in 1906 for Marusei Butter. C also brought our usual strawberry and potato crisps with chocolate coating from ROYCE' (Japanese). Too many sweets! Yeahy!

We enjoy hot wine in Winter as I wrote before. Last month, C' mother kindly sent us some GLÜHfix (spice mix in a tea bag). We warm up red wine with a spice bag (never boil!) in a pot and add some honey. Yummy. We can also buy granulated glüh wine mix but it doesn't seem tasty somehow.

When I went to Precce in Nakameguro, I bought Hiyama Natto (fermented soy beans) from Hiyama in Akita prefecture. This natto is hand-packed in straw in the traditional way. The bean has a chewy texture and very nice flavour. It was the first time for me to eat natto in straw, but it tasted like the natto I used to eat when I was a kid. I made avocado natto and ate it all. C really hates Natto. He hates about the smell but also about the styrofoam natto container. I've never thought about it that way.

Our Russian friend told C that how to cure his cold. Drink ice cold vodka with salt and pepper, go to bed and sweat a lot. Well, it didn't sound good to me but C bravely tried that. I don't know if it worked for him... There is a famous home remedy for a sore throat in Japan. Grill leak, put in a cloth and put it around a neck. I've never tried it and I don't know if it really works.

C came back from a business trip via Nagoya city. Nagoya is famous for uirou (steamed cake made of rice powder) and I asked him to bring green-tea flavour uirou for me. I haven't eaten it for several years. When I sliced it my memory of Uirou flashed back. It always annoyed me to slice because it's wobbly and sticky. Actually I used to hate it. But it was nice. The sweet factory Aoyagi Uirou use a frog and willow for their logo, because willow sounds almost like uirou...

I was ill in futon while everyone was having a long weekend (this Monday was a bank holiday in Japan). I missed the winter sale I wanted to go! Today I still didn't feel well, so I lay down all day. I can watch TV and read books, but it's difficult to surf internet when I lie down. Today was Kagami Biraki day. I was so surprised to look at our kagami mochi (rice cake decoration). It was covered with colourful mold!

I bought seven herbs from a supermarket (same as last year) and cooked Nanakusa-gayu (rice porridge with seven different kinds of spring herbs) to be in good health for the new year. But we've caught a cold already. Anyway, in Japan, we eat porridge when we are ill.

Yesterday was a very clear day, I could see Mount Fuji from our balcony between buildings. It looked very tiny but very clear. I know C wants to climb Mt. Fuji (3,776m), and I always tell him that Mt. Fuji is beautiful, but not for climbing because of the dirty environment (created by tourists). Anyway I'm not confident enough! But maybe I should try this year. We say 'one who never climbs Mt. Fuji is a fool, and one who climbs it twice is twice the fool'. I have to be fit for July when Mt. Fuji opens for climbing.

Update: I didn't have any special training, but I climbed Mt. Fuji on 28-29 Aug 2005!

Last night, our friends told me that they are having a sushi dinner at our friend's flat. She lives very close to us, so we joined them with cheese fondue sets. After we ate, we went to a karaoke just around the corner. We could have sang more but stopped after two hours and 30 minutes.

On the first of January, we invited our friends from England, Russia, America and Japan. Very International. I cooked some traditional Japanese New Year's food and C prepared cheese fondue. My friend gave me doraemon kamaboko (boiled fish paste) on new year's eve, so I put it in ozouni.

Happy New Year! On new year's eve it snowed a lot in Tokyo, it was not nice to go shopping! After I prepared osechi food, we visited our friends for the new year's countdown. At 4am, we all went to a temple to pray for good luck and good health in the new year. Let's have a great year!