Valentine's Day

 One of the things we have been asked to do here is be in charge of holiday parties at English classes (Eikaiwa.)  We have been asked to celebrate the American holidays on the week before those and prepare fun games and treats.  Japanese people love to party and it's a fun way to teach them about our culture.  We worked for weeks preparing for the Valentine's parties.

We made heart-shaped sugar cookies, (why are they pink? we were asked.  I guess they don't do food coloring here much and it was very hard to find.  When we did find it, it is a powder rather than liquid), cupcakes, brownies, homemade heart-shaped chocolates, crackers with cream cheese spread, chips and salsa, corn soup, and traditional Japanese party drinks.

All ready for the Tsuruoka party.

Do you love your neighbor?

You do the hokey pokey . . .

and you turn yourself around . . .

The next night, we partied at the Sakata eikaiwa. 

Here we are with the Endos (branch president and wife), Sister Endo (his mom), and Elder Hansen.  The Endos all brought delicious food, too.  It was a real feast.

Do you love your neighbor?

Dip, dip, dip

You put your right foot in . . .

You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around . .

We decided Valentine's Day was the perfect time to deliver goodie plates to some of our neighbors and less active friends in the branch.  Our kitchen was a "love factory" all week, churning out the goodies.  It's quite a challenge here as you can only bake 8 cookies at a time and there is only one pan, so the oven has to be reheated after each batch. 

Happy Valentine's Day from Japan!