Merry Christmas! Hope you're all enjoying the holidays. I might be back again later today; we're having Christmas dinner I think, and I'll be posting about that as usual.




Yesterday's Christmas Party for the folks at my family's restaurant. Who was invited? Employees and their families, as well as long time customers and family friends. Loads of food. Turkey, a whole roasted pig, sushi as well as some Vietnamese dishes that are served every year.

A whole, roasted pig.

This was up on display before the party started. A bit grim, yes, but it's quite the common sight when you pass by a Chinese butcher. It got hacked up in the kitchen, away from the party.


Today's feast. Basically just leftovers from yesterday, with a few new things. On my plate, in clockwise order:

• what I believe is pork, marinated in something quite spicy
• the roasted pork
• what I think is part of the turkey
• mashed potatoes and gravy
• Vietnamese Chicken salad (Gỏi gà)
• some Starfruit

Everything was delicious, and it got washed down with a glass of sparkling Apple-Berry juice.


My cousin got me this for Christmas. Always the musician, I've gotten another instrument. This one, just a little bit weirder than the melodica of last year. For those who have never seen one of these, it's an Otamatone, the brain child of Cube Works Company/Maywa Denki/Novmichi Tosa. Modeled after the East-Asian fiddles, like the koyku, erhu and haegeum, you produce a tone by lightly pressing on the stem of the instrument. The 'mouth' opens up to change how the sound resonates. I haven't figured out exactly how the notes are laid out, but I'm pretty certain it goes from an A (A3) to the E or F above middle C (E/F 5), and is set chromatically. Using the switches at the back, it has 3 octaves, a low, mid and high, as well as two volumes. Interesting instrument, but not exactly practical.

While they're really easy to pick up and 'play', they're ridiculously hard to get a consistent pitch if you haven't figured out where notes are on the stem.



Here's an example with a guitarist with delicious 絶対領域 (Zettai Ryouiki).

Anywho, that's how my Christmas went. Tell me about yours! Leave it in a comment, and I'll see you...whenever I post again!