Along with red velvet cake:
For dinner, we finally got to use the fondue set that Barbara and Jason gave us for a wedding gift when they came over last May. We dipped strawberries, bananas, apples, kiwis and marshmallows into the chocolate:
Hope you had a happy Valentine's day too!
We then started driving north and first stopped at a dam on Inasa Lake:
As we continued north, I took some of the very narrow roads through the forests. I love the winding roads, but I always have to be careful of oncoming cars. Luckily today, I hardly met any other cars, and never had to back up to let anybody by:
We finally got up to Kuma, where we stopped at a popular restaurant for soba noodles. Ayako had the (not-so-common) thick noodles:
I had the more common thin noodles:
Very yummy:
We looked around at the store there and saw some daikon radishes being dried outside:
We then had a nice drive back home. It was a beautiful day for a drive today, so I'm glad we took good advantage of it.
At lunch time, we ate eho-aki (lucky direction roll). This is more of a regional tradition from Osaka area but we thought we would try it. Ayako made a large sushi roll with 7 ingredients inside. We then had to face north-east (this year's lucky direction) while eating the sushi roll. We had to eat it all at once without stopping and while remaining silient.
It was a bit difficult and I couldn't enjoy the sushi roll as much as I would have normally. Here's Ayako eating here eho-maki:
We decided afterwards that it was fun to try but we won't be doing it next year. 
Next, I threw two handfulls of soybeans inside while shouting "Luck in" in Japanese:
As part of the fun, I also put on the demon mask that came with out pack of soybeans:
I had heard my students talking about this tradition last year, so I was glad to have tried doing it this year.
Shuto is now a year and a half old and he was very well behaved during their visit. He was fairly quiet except when pretending to talk on the phone or when he would talk with our thermos, which is shaped as a cat:
Ayako made some very delicious apple pie and pumpkin pie. Munsu shared his portion with Shuto, who actually ate half of it:
After watching him eat and drink, I could see how he got his round belly:
It was nice to see Eri and Munsu again, as well as to meet Shuto. Hopefully it won't be so long until we see them again.
They liked the old woman carrying 'daikon' (Japanese radish):
We then started playing silly games on the path with the skateboard:
And here is Sam doing a yoga pose on the railing at sunset:
We returned home and Keiji, Eiki and Emi came later on. Here's a nice shot of Eiki and Emi:
Ayako made lots of yummy sushi and Eiki brought many 'gyoza' (Chinese dumplings):
We gave Eiki and going away card and some small gifts. Keiji then interviewed Eiki (using wasabi as a microphone) about his feelings on receiving the gifts:
We then played Charades. Can you guess what animal this is?:
Answer: turtle Next is the charade for 'mind':
And a charade for the movie 'Meet the Parents":
We then took a break for dessert. Ayako made rum and raisin ice cream. Here she is showing us how much rum went into it:
Here's a couple of group shots we did at the end of the night:
Everyone went home at the end of the night except for Eiki and Emi who stayed over night. Here us having breakfast the next morning:
It was about 0 degrees C today, so we wrapped up warm since we had to stand outside for about 45 minutes and assist our neighbours to separate their garbage. There are eleven different types of recyclables and so we had to make sure that everyone separated them properly:
Near the end of our duty, some neighbourhood children gathered near us to go to school together. The children waited until they were all there and then the leader got them in a nice line and greated them with a "Good Morning!". Then they set off for school together. I was impressed how organized and calm they were and how it was done with no adult supervision. 
Many people were visiting it on this day, and they were getting ready for the huge crowds of people that will come there on the first few days of the new year:
Here you can see some gifts to the shrine from various companies:
We then visited Kencho temple, which is one of the oldest Zen temples in Japan and the oldest in Kamakura. It was built in 1253:
Here is me in front of a large bell, which has been designated a national treasure:
Inside the temple:
A beautiful painting of a dragon on the ceiling of the temple:
In another part of the temple:
Ayako in front of one of the gates:
We went for a small walk behind the temple, near a bamboo grove:
The next temple we visited was Engaku temple, which is the second-most famous Zen temple in Kamakura:
We then had a long walk to see a giant buddha statue and along the way, we saw this old entrance to a bank that looked very western:
We then had lunch close to the giant buddha statue. The restaurant's special was the buddha-looking udon:
Finally we arrived at the giant buddha statue:
Here's a close-up view:
We had a nice picture taken in front of it:
And then had fun taking other pictures in front of it:
After that, we were on a train back to Hamamatsu. WE both enjoyed the trip but are fairly exhausted after four long days of walking.
