Tyler, Mihoko & I. We're off to celebrate their wedding in Nagasaki later this month.

Andrew

Darin and Tyler. Kat is up in Aomori visiting her old host family with Jake.

Sandi, Jane & I

Nate and Robert

Friday was a significant day, so I celebrated the momentous occasion in fine style with a nabe party at my place with the local crew. Well, OK, so Sandi isn't exactly a local but she does have a toothbrush here so I guess that makes her an honorary local. More fabulously crappy drunken photos taken partly by people who weren't me on my camera here. Thanks to those who came, and especially to Justin who kept the cans under control and to Jane and Sandi for helping me clean up at 3 in the morning... Oh, and to Nate for the loan of the extra nabe bowl and cooker.

Nabe parties have this magical way of making you feel warm in so many ways:

Eating together from a shared pot is considered as an important feature of nabemono; East Asian people believe that eating from one pot makes for closer relationships. The Japanese thus say, Nabe (w)o kakomu (鍋を囲む、"sitting around the pot"), implying that sharing nabemono will create warm relations between the diners who eat together from the shared pot. (source: wikipedia)

A cozy way to pass a winters 'eve, to be sure, to be sure.