Verny Park

Verny Park is a small park just a few minutes away from where we live right now. It is named after Léonce Verny, a Frenchman who helped build the shipyard in Yokosuka. The park is planted with hundreds of roses--but only a few were blooming, not surprising since it's winter here!

Looking towards the shipyard, a couple American ships (left) and Japanese submarine (right)

Original gates to the shipyard, circa 1865 or so

New Year's in Nihon

Mameshiba eats mochi

New Year's in Japan is the most important holiday of the year. The house is cleaned from top to bottom, special foods are eaten, and houses are decorated with symbolic decor to welcome in the New Year. Millions of people flock to shrines on New Year's Eve and the days following for their first shrine (or temple) visit of the year, called Hatsumōde. 

New Year's Decorations

We visited nearby Kamakura, which has over 70 shrines and temples, including one of the most significant Shinto shrines, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū. The center city is closed to motorized traffic for three days after New Year's. We decided not to wait in line to get in to the shrine since the line was ridiculously long but it was fun to experience the festive atmosphere!

In Which We Eat Strange Fruits

We tried a few unusual Asian fruits the other day at the grocery store--dragonfruit and kumquats. At about 500 yen ($6.50) each they were not cheap but we couldn't resist. I had to research how to eat them since I had no idea. Dragonfruit you slice open and scoop out or you can slice open, scoop the whole piece out and cut it up. The texture is like a melon and we were surprised to find that the flavor was extremely mild. The water chestnut of fruits!

Kumquats I was a little more familiar with...you eat it whole and spit the seeds out. The peel is sweet and the fruit sour. They taste like oranges, being a citrus fruit. Apparently you also can roll them around in your hands to get the juices flowing and make them taste better. Who knew?

Igor was not a fan of the dragonfruit

Bag'o Kumquats