Japanese New Years, endless amounts of food

Japanese maki-sushi (rolled sushi)

Nowadays I have relatives in Saitama. My brother was also in Saitama for New Years, and we spent the holiday in the traditional way of lying in a sofa and eating endless amounts of food. My brother also got  a cold, which made us even less active than usual. We saw quite a few strange Japanese TV shows between all the eating, but we did not go to the temple for the New Year praying thing that is common.

This dog loves vegetables and was very interested in the sushi

The sushi when cut

Soba is traditional New Years food in Japan

I brought (well, sent) crabs from Sapporo. They arrived before I did.

In Japan you eat crabs (and most other things, like for instance cake) with chop sticks 

Japanese crabs have shells that are soft enough to cut with scissors (if you have heavy duty scissors)

This is a kind of rum-raisin style sweet from Sapporo; very popular

Chocolate from Sapporo